Well it has been another busy week.....

We have had 4 children with measles so far - Adamu, Davey, Amina and Jessica, and 2 with chicken pox - Mwita and Joseph (who is VERY proud of his spots and thinks it is the best thing ever!)

Thankfully they are all recovering well and now seem to be doing fine....we just wait each day for the next spots to appear!

We are taking 16 children to have their measles vaccination tomorrow! I have done SO much research about whether this is a good idea (as has my Mum - thanks Mum)and it seems that the general consensus is to vaccinate the children aged 6 months and above whether they have HIV or not.

We DO vaccinate all of our children on the usual childhood schedule....but the measles jab is given at 9 months and is a live vaccine and not reccommended for children with HIV...so all our children with HIV and all those who are under 9 months (plus our new toddlers who have not yet got to the measles jab in their schedule) are at risk of catching it!

Anyhow - tomorrow we are going to have a lot of unhappy children....but I am SURE this is the best thing for them now that they are all exposed to measles.

I was supposed to get 3 new babies this week...but I have put the hospital staff off for a couple of weeks until the measles and chicken pox has gone!
They are all tiny babies - Dotto is about 8 weeks old and weighs 2kg now. She was abandoned by her Mum the day after she was born and no family have been traced. Rhobi is 1.7kg and is about 4 weeks old. Her Mum also left her at the hospital and has never returned. Leah is about 2 weeks old and her Mum is admitted to the Psychiatric Ward.
As soon as we are 'germ free' again at the Baby Home - these three adorable babies should be joining our growing family.

Ella might be going home soon. Her Mum has been in the Psychiatric Ward in Bugando Hospital for a few months and she has just been discharged. The Social Welfare wanted us to give Ella to her, give her a bus fare back to her village and thats it. This poor woman has 'psychosis' and just a couple of months ago she tried to kill Ella. I am sure that she is fine now....but it seems a little risky to just pack her and Ella off on a bus with no idea where she is going or who she will go to!?
We finally agreed that Ella's Mum needs to return home to her village and bring back a relative who can help her to take care of Ella. If this happens, then everyone can be assured that Ella and her Mum will have the care and support they need.

The calenders and Christmas cards are selling really well. Please keep telling your friends and family about them so we can sell lots this year and make a profit.
For those of you ordering from Overseas....the postage we asked for does not actually cover the shipping costs - so if anyone who has not yet ordered would like to add a little more to cover the postage costs - that would be great!!

The Volunteers will be moving into their new house in a few days. We get the keys on Saturday and I want to do a big clean of everything on Sunday and Monday and then they are all free to move in after that.
The Landlord is busy painting the house and fixing a few small problems and I have been shopping big time to furnish the house!

I am looking forward to refurbishing the old Volunteer House in February and turning it into a 'Tiny Angels' House.

Oh - and I have a question.....does anyone know how to get rid of flies!? We have SO many 'house flies' at the Baby Home at the moment - crawling over the children and buzzing around the place. Any wonderful ideas to get rid of them would be greatfully received! (Oh - and if you were about to suggest it - fly paper just doesn't seem to work!)

I have been busy with the Volunteer House this week - but also paying salaries, re-writing all the Baby Home policies (which were written in 2005 before we opened and are now due to be renewed!)and trying to sort everything out so that I can leave in December for a months holiday in the UK with my family and not feel like I have too much to come back to!

Oh - and one last peice of news. One of our UK Trustees, (who also happens to be my Dad!) is coming outto Mwanza to live next week! He loves Tanzania and has retired in the UK and is keen to come and live and work out here for a while. My kids are SO excited to have him here and Cosmos, our Driver/Handyman is even more so!!

If anyone would like to set up a 'Sponsor a Child' as a Christmas gift to someone this year - PLEASE contact me on amy@foreverangels.org. With the world's economy so poor right now, I have a feeling that giving to charity will soon halt in the Westeren World....but my Forever Angels babies will always need food and support....so please, just £5 a month is a GREAT help to us. If everyone reading this now set up £5 a month, we would be able to cover our running costs....

That's all for now - I am going to prepare a list of kids to be jabbed tomorrow!

I love Africa. I love Tanzania. I love Mwanza.......but it is that time of year again that I find myself trying to remember why!!?

It rains all the time and it is impossible to get 400 nappies washed and dried each day.

It rains all day so the kids are stuck indoors.......and get boistrous and loud and hard work!

It rains all the time...and is sort of like Winter....so the kids all get sick! They all have the usual coughs and colds, but this time we also have chicken pox and 4 cases (so far) of measles thrown in! Not pleasant!

It rains all the time so my staff are all late to work....or get too ill to come - so I spend my days sorting out cover shifts!

I DO love Africa. I DO love Tanzania. I DO love Mwanza....but October really sucks!

Well - It seems we are having a bad week of it! We often have 'bugs' going round the Baby Home - coughs and colds, conjunctivitis, diaoreah etc - but nothing like this week!

Mwita DEFINATELY has chicken pox....all his spots were fluid filled and have now scabbed over. He is doing fine - just a bit itchy!

However - I now think Adamu has measles! His rash looks nothing like a chicken pox rash and exactly like a measles rash.....HOW can we have both of these going round at the same time!?



Adamu's rash!

A few other children have got fever...but no other spots have been found on anyone else ..... yet!

On a different note - we have got some changes at the Baby Home planned for the next few months.
Next week we will start renting a house outside of the Baby Home compound for our Volunteers to live in. It is just 2 minutes / 100 yeards walk away from the Baby Home.

Then, over the next few months - we are going to refurbish the current Volunteer House and turn it into a 'Tiny Angels House' for our youngest children.

At the moment ALL the children stay in one house - but it is getting crowded and the small babies are suceptible to catching every illness that the toddlers bring in. We hope to reduce this, and have a more peaceful home for babies under 6 months.

Watch this space....

So, from November 8th - the Volunteers will be living in a new, rented accomodation. It is a very nice, a large 4 bedroomed house with plenty of living space and a large garden. I think it will be much better for the volunteers than the cramped house they currently share.

Well - it looks like we have Chicken Pox at the Baby Home! So far it is only one child - Mwita - but the pustular rash is unmistakeable!

We have put all the HIV positive children on a course of Acyclovir antibiotics as Chicken Pox is very dangerous to children with Compromised Immune Systems.

Fingers crossed it doesn't spread to our tiny babies and that it disappears quickly!

We took all the toddlers to the Sukuma Museum today to watch the Traditional Dancers. The kids all had a great time - ate LOTS of food on a picnic and were extremely well behaved.....most were utterly terrified of the large snake they used in one of the dances though!

Well - there is not much Baby Home news this week.....

I have just spent 3 days in Dar es Salaam with my family trying to get Adoption Certificates and Passports and Visas arranged for my children so that we can go to the UK in December. This will be our first time back to the UK in 3 years - and my two youngest children's first trip to England. They are all very excited!

We will be in England for the whole of December - to spend some quality time with family and friends and to 'recharge our batteries' as it were!

I am confident that my staff and volunteers will keep Forever Angels running smoothly in my absence.....but am secretly hoping no children arrive or leave while I am not there!

The Baby Home children are all well - except Abdalla who I suspect has pneumonia. We have started him on antibiotics as a precaution as his Immune System is very weak right now so he will struggle to fight a serious illness.

We have many wonderful volunteers at the moment - Chloe. Sandra, Meghan, Jenny, Alison, Amber, Emily and Erika - all who are wonderful and so great with the children. Meghan and Jenny are off on a 2 week (much needed) holiday adventure....have a great time guys.

Everything else is running smootly. We have finally changed our system and the children now share clothes! Since we opened all the children have had their own set of clothes - but with 43 children this is just not manageable anymore.....so now we have a central store which the children all share. It isn't ideal and I did like the fact that the children had their own possessions....but then, even my own 3 daughters share all their clothes so I don't think it will upset the Baby Home children too much!
Thank you to the Volunteers for sorting this.

Cosmos has been busy this week replacing all the 'jamvi' around our property. This is like matting which stops people seeing into our grounds. He has also been building a small 'potty area' in the garden to keep potties in, and children out!
Thanks Cosmos.

That is all for now.....I still hope to give you all news of some adoptions very soon.....

Our sales of Forever Angels Christmas Cards and 2009 calenders has been really great so far - so if you want to purchase these items to support our children - please put your order in quickly to avoid disappointment!

The Cards are VERY cute and the Calenders will make excellent gifts this Christmas for your friends and family. Thank you again to April for her amazing photography!



Things at the Baby Home are going well. We have had a relatively quiet week but I have still been busy with Staff meetings, Rota's and Salaries.

The children are all healthy right now which is always good to report!

Pre school is amazing and Meghan is doing such a wonderful job. So many of the children are now speaking great English and they have such fun every day. We have 8 volunteers at the moment and it is great to have so many extra hands at the Baby Home giving so much love to the children - thank you all.

We are currently in need of a few items - so if volunteers are coming out soon, or if anyone would like to send a small package out to us....we are in need of:
* Paper fasteners / split pins
* Cotton wool / Cotton balls
* Calpol (Children's Paracetamol
* Pyjamas - ages 6-12 months, 2 years and 3 years.

We are all hoping that the adoptions of some of our children will take place in the next few weeks and some of our babies will be with their new families by Christmas....watch this space.

Forever Angels Christmas Cards and Calendars are now on sale!

Even if I say so myself - this years Forever Angels Christmas cards really are amazing, thanks to our volunteer professional photographer: April Maciborka.......Also, the Forever Angels 2009 Calendar is just fabulous!

The cards and calender all depict photos of our Forever Angels children and they really are adorable.

The cards cost £5 for a pack of 10 mixed designs (with envelopes) and the calenders are priced at £6.50 each. This price includes Postage and Packing (please add an extra £1 per pack / calender if you live outside the UK)

All the proceeds from the sale of the cards go directly to the children at Forever Angels. PLEASE help to support us this Christmas by ordering some cards and calenders.

If you would like to order them, please fill out an Order Form and either post it or e-mail a copy to our UK trustees at the address given on the form. The cards / calenders will then be posted to you within a few days.

Thank you SO much for your support......