The Watoto Book Rescue Raise Rebuild

rescue 1. I Am Intentional (17) 2. Living Hope (39) 3. A Stolen Generation (53) 4. A Place to Call Home (63)

raise 5. Watoto Means “Children” (79) 6. A Mother’s Love, A Father’s Heart (93) 7. Future Leaders (105) 8. Equipped to Face the World (115) 9. Making An Impact (123) 10. Meeting All Their Needs (129) 11. Concerts of Hope (133)

rebuild 12. Rebuilding Lives (143) 13. Finding Foregiveness (155) 14. Restoring Dignity (167) 15. Child Soldier No More (181) 16. Planting Seeds of Hope (187) 17. Global Problems, Global Solutions (191)

rescue

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Dear Sir, I have a dependent who gave birth to a premature baby, alive but in the special care unit. She is a helpless girl and unable to nurse her baby, a daughter of my late brother.

While I should take responsibility I am unable to nurse and care for the baby. I therefore request for your support to help me get assistance from kind parties to help save the baby’s life. Then I will seek medical assistance for the mother.

Thanking you for your kind support, Yours faithfully, K. S.

�

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n Kampala, there is a place that is quite unlike any other you are likely to ever come across. On the red clay floors of the inner courtyard is a collection of toys in the colours that children like, all neatly packed into small wooden boxes. Rooms with names like “Hippo” and “Elephant” open along the two inner porches that make up the shaded courtyard and sitting on mats and in little toddler chairs are a dozen infants of different ages and sizes. Some of them, like children do everywhere, eat the toys they clutch in their hands. Others catch the eye of a nanny or some visitor and stare them down curiously. When you first arrive at Baby Watoto, the ones who are old enough to stand on their own two feet will race each other to grab you around the leg, and they will hold on so tight that when you move to take a step you will lift up their fat little bodies as you propel yourself forward, and they love this.

They love it when you produce from your pocket some meaningless trinket and let them pass their fingers over it; let them shake it and taste it and listen to whatever sound it might make. They love it when you cover your eyes with your hand for a few seconds and then slowly, slyly separate your fingers and peek at them cheekily. More than anything else they love attention. They sometimes compete for it aggressively.

Maybe it’s because their first human experience was rejection. It happens every day. Some babies have been found in pit latrines. Some are thrown out with the trash. There are those that are hidden under trees, and in bushes or are concealed amidst the banana plantations. Some are dumped in buckets of water, and others are simply left on doorsteps or under church pews. From the moment these babies arrive Watoto does all that they can to provide them with every opportunity to become great. Watoto sees this as their entitlement.

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“

June 8, 2010 Michael, aged approximately one month was abandoned in Maternity at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital on June 5, 2010 by an unknown person... Efforts to trace his relatives have totally failed. M.R.R. Hospital does not have the capacity to provide Michael with basic needs. I therefore apply for a care order placing Michael under the care of Watoto, P.O. Box 26366, Kampala.

T.M.S Probation and Welfare Officer, Mbarara

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�

Annie Duguid is the Team Leader of Baby Watoto, which cares for abandoned babies like Michael whose mother disappeared shortly after giving birth to him prematurely.

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Baby Watoto has three babies homes like this one in Gulu. Baby Watoto Kampala cares for preemies and other babies who need special attention. Once the children are healthy and strong they are moved to Suubi or Laminadera in Gulu.

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teen pregnancy is the main reason mothers abandon their babies. since baby watoto has been providing essential care to these neglected children.

2 0 0 7

“Big Mo� was the first child to enter Baby Watoto on January 15, 2007. He now lives at Bbira Children’s Village with his new family which includes a mother and six brothers and sisters.

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adam

Date of Birth: June 10, 2010 Arrived at Baby Watoto: June 15, 2010 From: Kampala Weight on arrival: 1.14 kg / 2.2 lbs Size on arrival: 39 cm / 15 inches

June 15, Kampala

A

red emergency light on a broken incubator flashes in the preemie ward of a hospital in Kampala. A warning signal can be heard over the whispering cries of the tiny, frail premature babies. The weary incubators are used merely as cots. The air is hot inside this cramped room.

When Watoto found Adam he was crying as he lay in an incubator in the back of the room. His mother, a mentally unstable teenager suffering from epilepsy, was so unwell she was unaware she had given birth five days ago. Hospital staff had been frustrated in their efforts to care for Adam by an acute lack of resources - they didn’t have any diapers or blankets - and his mother was simply unable to feed him. His condition was critical and so the hospital called Baby Watoto.

At the request of his uncle, Adam was admitted to Baby Watoto, who looks after vulnerable premature babies that would otherwise die without the special care they need to survive.

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Adam, five days old at a hospital in Kampala, June 2010.

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“

If any relatives are alive, most orphanages don’t want anything to do with them. Those are ultimately some of the most vulnerable babies we receive because there’s often nobody else who will help them, yet they will die if they don’t receive proper care.

- Annie Duguid, Baby Watoto Team Leader.

”

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A nanny cares for Adam at Baby Watoto two days after he arrived from a Hospital in Kampala.

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aban路doned

adjective definiton - given up ; forsaken

Name: Wilson Estimated Date of Birth: March 23, 2010 Arrived at Baby Watoto: June 01, 2010 Weight on arrival: 1.03 kg / 3.9 lbs Size on arrival: 29 cm / 17 inches

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“

The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.

- Isaiah 49:1

�

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sam

Date of Birth: Unknown Arrived at Baby Watoto: June 8, 2010 From: Mbarara Weight on arrival: 3.46 kg / 7.6 lbs Size on arrival: 60 cm / 23 inches

O

n May 29, 2010 Sam was abandoned at a hospital in Mbarara in western Uganda. His teenage mother was unable to care for him and at the age of seven months Sam was so malnourished that he weighed only seven pounds. When he came to Baby Watoto the staff were worried that he wouldn’t survive through the week, but with special care and a lot of love Sam made a remarkable recovery. Now he’s a healthy, happy boy with a very bright future. Sam’s second name suggests he has born a twin. Sadly, every effort to find his sibling has failed.

Sam, 8 months old at Baby Watoto, Kampala, June 2010.

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Sam, 10 months old at Baby Watoto, Kampala, August 2010.

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Every year eleven million children around the world die before their fifth birthday.* In Uganda hunger is most often a result of poverty, not a lack of food. Baby Watoto rescues and provides critical care to vulnerable babies aged 0-2.

They have either been abandoned or orphaned due to poverty, lack of education and the HIV/AIDS crisis. They come to Watoto from a number of different referral sources such as hospitals, local authorities, child protection units, good samaritans or other homes and care organisations. When they are older and physically well enough, they graduate to a Watoto Children’s Village, or, in some cases they are reunited with existing relatives. *WHO 2005

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