Today - another Sunday - Bianca was rushed to Bugando Hospital. I wish my Baby Home children would learn that Sundays are really NOT a good day to get sick in this country!?

The story goes that she woke at 6am, watched a bit of TV and became drowsy. Just before 7am, I received a phone call to say that she was unconcious. When I arrived she was not concious and could not be woken. She had no symptoms - no fever, no vomiting, no diaoreah, no complaints of feeling unwell the previous day or in the night

We went first to the Hindu Union Hospital (which I have been going to for 7 years.....but who are very wary of us since Alfie was so sick there at Easter time). They refused to treat Bianca, or even examine her and sent us to Bugando! (A waste of half an hour).

We finally arrived at Bugando and went straight to Casualty - where we sat for TWO HOURS before a nurse or Doctor even emerged in the room! Thankfully - by this time, Bianca had woken up and was drinking and more responsive.

As I guessed they would - they barely examined her, diagnosed her with Malaria and sent us home. Bianca does not have malaria - I did two tests throughout the afternoon. But here it is an easy diagnosis to make and one which almost every Doctor I have met chooses to make despite there being NO symptoms to suggest this.

(Scarily, and in favour of the Doctors - for 7 years I have believed that fever is ALWAYS present with malaria....but now it seems that is not the case. Doctors in Bugando are reporting huge numbers of severe cases of Malaria with no fever present - which is just scary. How are we ever going to catch and treat malaria on time if there are no symptoms!?)

We also had an 'interesting' conversation with a very well respected Doctor at the Hospital about whether Bianca was 'clean' or not (meaning - did she have HIV) and that if she was 'dirty', he would be reluctant to treat her and she would not be going to heaven anyhow?! This comes from one of the most educated Doctors in the entire hospital?

And rather than shouting and screaming my true feelings to him - (and believe me I DO have some pretty strong feelings about this!) we nod poiltely and thank him for his good work. (Not doing this could result in him refusing to treat one of our sick children next time we are in dire need - and this man runs the ICU department)

So - we took Biance home - still very unresponsive and drowsy. Thankfully - she perked up at home but in the afternoon she had a repeat of flitting in and out of conciousness.
We wanted to take her back to hospital but the labs are all closed at the weekends and Doctors are unbelievably hard to find .... and we had already been sent home once - so we decided that there was little point?

We did a urine dipstick and I think she has a UTI which she is now being treated for....but this is all guess work and still does not really explain her unconciousness?

Working with kids is so hard sometimes. Bianca is 4 years old and still not able to describe her illness to me! When asked 'What hurts?' she didn't answer. When given leading questions - Does your head/stomach/neck/back/eyelash hurt? - she said 'yes' to everything!

I have got my wonderful caregiver 'Selina' in as extra cover at the Baby Home tonight - to simply watch and monitor Bianca all night and call me if and when she gets sick again. Lets hope her meds work and she is fine tomorrow.

Days like today make you remember just how poor a medical system this place really has. An 'emergency' just does not exist here. Casualty has no Doctors or Nurses and the Labs are shut all weekend so no tests can get done anyhow? In the UK - if a sick child is brought into casualty - it will be seen quickly and inevitably saved. It is just not the case here. You wait for hours getting files and waiting to see Doctors and even longer to get meds...that more often than not it is just too late.
Thankfully - I do not think that Bianca is that serious - but my kids just do not learn - they keep getting sick on Sundays!?

I have lots of 'Thank You's' today....

The UK and Tanzanian Trustees would like to say a HUGE 'Thank you' to all of our monthly Sponsors - without your generous support - Forever Angels would not be the wonderful place it is today. We totally rely on your regular sponsorship as a guarenteed income for Forever Angels and we are so greatful to you all.

Whether it is through Just Giving or The Royal Bank of Scotland - we really do appreciate your support and hope you enjoy reading about your Sponsor Child every quarter.
Thank you SO much.

There are some monthly Donors out there who we unfortunately do not have contact details for, so we are unable to thank them or to send them information about the child they sponsor. If you are currently an anonymous donor - but you would like to start receiving updates, please contact Amy on amy@foreverangels.org.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to you all. Your support is so appreciated and much needed.

If you would like to start sponsoring a child (any amount, no matter how small, is such a huge help to us) please contact Amy at the above email address for more information.


I would like to say another 'Thank you' to all of our Volunteers at Forever Angels - past, present and future. Our Volunteers come and do such a wonderful job at the Baby Home and we truly appreciate the time, dedication and love they give to our children.

If any Volunteers do not have their photo on our Volunteer Page of the website - please drop me a quick email and attach a photo of your time at the Baby Home and we will add you onto the website.

If you are interested in Volunteering at Forever Angels - we still have places available from Spetember onwards and we would LOVE to hear from you.

And now a BIG 'Thank you' to everyone who donated goods for the Container.....here are a few photos of the children trying out some of the new toys / equipment....thank you so much!

Finally - our children would like to say a great big.....'THANK YOU VERY MUCH' for all their new toys, clothes, books, chairs, preschool equipment and wonderful goods that were so generously donated..... Thank you!

Meet Wakuru....our newest addition to the Baby Home.

Wakuru is 6 days old and our 91st child to come to Forever Angels Baby Home.

We currectly have 45 babies in our care - with 8 of them being five months old or younger.


A few more bits of random news....

Slivini is now at home and doing a lot better.

We are spending our days unpacking boxes from the Container and sorting the contents up in the attic.

Ella took her first steps today!

The twins, Ben and Anna are now both over 3.5 kilos and doing really well.

Carol (our Preschool teacher) leaves next week and my sister Zoe takes over as Teacher. Thank you SO much to Carol for all your hard work and enthusiasm....and welcome to Zoe!

Our Sensory room is almost complete and looking GREAT! Photos to follow very soon.....

That's all for today.....

Well thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.....baby Slivini has made an amazing recovery and this afternoon he was sitting up, eating and alert! The Doctors had told us yesterday that there was little chance of him surviving - but now he will almost certainly pull through. We are just thrilled.

He had a lumbar puncture yesterday (in a not at all sterile store room - but that is another story!)and we will get the results back on Monday - but Meningitis now seems unlikely which is such great news.

His Mum has been with him for most of his time in hospital....sadly sitting far away from him and just looking at him lovingly (as she is very sick and catching chicken pox would quite likely kill her.)

We hope he will be home on Monday when he has finished his antibiotics.

Yesterday, in between Lumbar punctures and hopsital chaos - we received two new babies! Welcome to 4 month old baby girls (not related) - Elizabeth and Connie.

Elizabeth is an abandoned baby who sadly has severe hydrocephalus and is blind and maybe deaf. We are not sure what her life expectancy will be but she is now settled and happy in the Tiny Baby House.



Connie (actually named Consulata by the hospital staff) has been in the hospital for a few weeks since her Mum sadly died from heart failure. She is also a content and happy baby and another well loved addition to our Tiny Angels House.



To make room for these new angels - Anthony and David moved to the main Baby Home yesterday. They have been a little unsettled today, getting used to being prodded and poked by the other crawling babies...but they have been cuddled none stop all day and will soon settle in to 'big kid' life!

It has been a busy few days with my family here but the weekend looks set to be even busier.

Slivini has been admitted to hospital with severe chicken pox and suspected meningitis. The prognosis does not look good.

He was not allowed to be admitted to Intensive Care due to the risk of infecting other patients and so he is on Children's Ward. This isn't wonderful at the best of times - but right now the whole hospital is being refurbished (yes, every ward at the same time) and so it is like a building site. I am not sure how any child is expected to rest or get better in such an environment....especially someone like Slivini who is so sick.....

Please pray for our little boy...

Today, Victoria returned home to live with her Mum. This was a very sudden reunification because as far as we were concerned, Victoria was an abandoned child with no known family. However, unbeknown to us, a week after Victoria was found (Eleven months ago in September 2008) her Mum returned to the Police to find her.

Victoria HAD been abandoned (as her Mother was desperate and had no house and job and felt unable to care of her) but a few days later, she realised her mistake and went to the Authorities to reclaim her baby.

However - she was thrown in jail and has been there for almost a year.....until last week when she finally had a hearing and was granted custody of her little girl again!

Half of Vicky's life has been lived in Forever Angels and so she no longer had any idea who her Mother was - so it was a very difficult reunification. Vicky is too young to understand what was happening to her and was very upset to be given to a 'stranger'.

We are sure though - that her Mother has throught this through a lot and will now be a good Mum to Vicky and love her dearly. Goodbye Vicky - we love you and will miss you.

I have been away in Zanzibar for a week with my family and had a wonderfully relaxing time. Thank you SO much to Meghan for doing such a great job while I was away. Amongst other things - she totally redecorated our Baby Home Office! It looks so clean and organised now - thank you SO much! You are a star.

Whilst I was away we received 2 tiny new Angels - twins - Anna and Benedict. They are only 2 weeks old and weigh just 2kg each, but they are so beautiful!
Sadly their Mother died in childbirth - but their father will care for them when they are weaned and able to eat solid foods. The Tiny Baby staff are so happy to have tiny babies to care for again!

The chicken pox has (so far!) remained contained and only Aza and Jennifer caught it which is great!



And lastly - my family have arrived in Mwanza - en masse!:



* My sister Zoe and her two children (Cameron and Sadie) who are here for 12 months. Zoe is going to take over the Preschool from September when Carol leaves and her children will be going to school with my children. It is SO great to have them here.



* My sister Karen and her two children (Sam and Max) who is here for a month now (to set up our Sensory Room once the Container arrives) and who is returning for 4 months in December in her role of Occupational Therapist! The Sensory Room is SO exciting for the Baby Home and will be such a great resource for our Special Needs children - thank you Karen!



* My brother Mark who has never been to Tanzania before so is just going to enjoy the Baby Home and help out Cosmos with odd jobs. It is great to finally have my brother here.



* My Dad's best friend Andy who is a very old family friend and who wanted to come to see the place my dad fell in love with.



* ...and last but not at all least - my Mum - Val - who is SO happy to be back at the Baby Home and have all 4 of her children and all 8 of her Grandchildren in the same place at the same time for once! She is going to do some training with our Staff and help with our Tiny Baby House....and is SO excited to be here when the container arrives since she put SO much work into getting it sorted and packed and sent from England.

Welcome to all of you....

I am sorry if I have not replied to some of your emails this week....and if I do not reply for the next week - but I am on holiday in Zanzibar with all my family from England and we are taking a well deserved break!

I will be back on Sunday 9th August and will reply to all emails then.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Meghan is running the place while I am away and although I feel tremendously guilty (leaving her during an outbreak of Chicken Pox!) - I have every faith in her and know that she will do an amazing job, as always.

Meghan - I love you dearly and do not know what I, or Forever Angels would do without you. Thank you allowing me this time with my family.....