Oli Otya from Uganda! Things are moving at a very fast pace out here and this project is going from ‘quite big’ to a ‘monumentally huge undertaking’ over the past few weeks because the need is so great. Our dedication and passion for finding loving Ugandan families for our children is something that resonates with every policy maker, official and probation officer in Kampala. When we talk about our prevention programme, eyes light up because there is currently very little support for mothers to try and stop baby abandonment happening in the first place.
In January, we spent time at Mulago Hospital, where 100 babies are born every day. We spent time with the incredible social work department – Faith, David, Barbara and John – who, between them, look over the whole hospital. No easy task when you consider that, as the main government referral hospital in Uganda, Mulago has over 740,000 patients seeking treatment every year.
Here I met someone who totally embodies why we are out here trying to change things: a 24-year-old mother, starving and suffering from malaria, was watching her 8-month daughter, Olivia. Olivia weighed 3.4kg – the same as a newborn child – but instead of sitting, crawling and babbling, she was lying still, too weak to even move. This mother doesn’t want to abandon her baby, but unable to feed her, she is slowly watching her die.
Although they do everything they can, Mulago’s social work department resources are stretched so thin they do not have the funds to help her and all the other mothers in a similar situation. If her baby is ever healthy again, she will go back to her village, but without any money or skills, she’ll probably be back in a few months.
On a tour of the ward, we met a three-year-old girl who had returned here a number of times She was listlessly standing by her bed, just staring at us; her aunt was lying on the floor. An hour later, she was dead. She had walked to the end of the ward to get milk, where she vomited, collapsed and died. Her poor young body had been through so much it could no longer cope.
They took her body away, the cleaner cleaned up and the aunt left to go back the village. In one hour, she had been forgotten, but we were left haunted by the notion that earlier intervention could have resulted in a completely different outcome.
If we could provide support to young vulnerable mothers, empower them and give them the skills to earn money so they can afford food and shelter, they will not keep returning to the ward, or be forced to abandon their children or helplessly watch them die.
This project is huge and the only way we are going to succeed is if we find partners to outsource the work, so it gives me great pleasure to introduce Oasis Uganda. Their ‘Bambeja’ programme teaches girls skills to enable them to support themselves financially and keep their children.
Thank you for all your support and please do continue to help me make a world of difference
http://www.childsifoundation.org
