We started off our day at a little more leisure which was lovely! We split our team to visit two projects. Five of us went to Joe’s project at the Namuwongo slum area. The project is called ‘Hands of Hope’ and is run by Joe Cummisky. We had a lively morning in their nurseries. We enjoyed playing with the little ones who were very affectionate and full of beans! We had fun doing the Noah presentations and seeing the little ones singing and participating. The teachers are doing a good job with all the wee ones from the slums. We were impressed at some of the older nursery kid’s levels of English. We had a great chat with Joe who was kind to give of his time to fill us in on all that is going on with his very diverse project.
The rest of the team visited the Hospice in Kampala. We heard the history of the work and about the home visits made daily to many who were dying with cancer or complications from HIV/AIDS. As a result of the project morphine had been made available for pain relief and very significant progress had been made with training health staff across Uganda in effective palliative care measures. There was opportunity to interact with some of the children who were receiving Day Care at the Hospice and we were pleased to be able to give the children small gifts.
Patients waiting to be seen at the Hospice
Children receiving gifts at Hospice
Day 22
The team headed off this morning with great excitement to visit an abandoned babies home. Sanyo baby home has 40 little ones ranging from 3 months to 3 years. We had such fun playing with the babies, learning their names and experiencing some little personalities! It was shocking to meet the youngest baby who was abandoned and just arrived in the home yesterday. Deborah was very frail and had very prominent bones. Many of the kids are left in latrines, dustbins or abandoned on streets, hospitals. These wee ones are the lucky ones who have managed to survive and are now thriving on the love and care they get in Sanyo. Many of the children are adopted in Uganda and also outside of the country. It was a privilege to visit the home today and also to learn from the Social Worker about the processes of Ugandan local and international adoption.
Wenford relaxing at sanyu while the others fed all the babies
David had left a Greek New Testament with us to deliver to Father Aloysius on the Entebbe Road. We took the opportunity after Sanyu to see him. He was delighted to receive the New Testament and offered to come with us to deliver some relief items to needy local communities. We called at a school in the slum area and left clothes and footballs for distribution and then he brought us to see Airfield View Primary School which was being run by Volunteer director, Mary Smith from USA. Mary told us the story of how God had given her a vision for orphans and those sexually abused and she had bought land to build an orphanage for those who had been traumatised and bereaved through the terror of the LRA. Already Mary had opened an orphanage in India and had come to Uganda 3 years ago investing all her resources in the school and in land for an orphanage. On her own she had established the project and it was amazing to hear how she had established the school and was working towards her vision with no outside help. She had met Father Aloysius 2 weeks earkier and asked him to bring any visitors he met to her school. We had asked Father Aloysius to bring us to places of need and he had immediately thought of Mary. She told us she had been praying for folk to visit and had just that day prayed for a football (we brought her 4) and we were her first foreign visitors. Wow – to be an answer to prayer and to be able in just a little way to bless her by providing a few simple resources for use in the school – which was so impressive. What a mighty privilege for us to meet Mary and see the work. We will definitely follow up this amazing networking opportunity. Only God knows where this connection will go.
