Saving Babies Lives at the New Baby Unit

It wasn't the best start in life. In fact, "life" and "start" probably shouldn't be used to describe it, as the little (barely over a kilo) lifeless baby turned steadily greyer as her helpless mum looked on. The simple truth is that this is Uganda and she was well on her way to becoming one of the 39,000 babies that will die this year before they reach 28 days old.

Well that might have been the story if this was 2012. Or even a week ago. But for this little 'un, "life" itself was about to explode onto the scene with a bang! Seeing the life leaking out of her, the attendant nurse rushed to the newly opened Baby Unit, just down the corridor. After greeting everyone meticulously, as we do here, she very politely wondered whether any of the present doctors and nurses being expertly trained by our very own Dr Sarah in resuscitation would mind coming down the hall to check on the very small baby of our story. Cue a rapid exit of the "Baby Rescue Team"!

However, it wasn't looking good. Dr Sarah recalls: "Honestly, we felt like it was getting futile, but with all our new nurses observing, it seemed a good thing to continue until we had emphasised all the important parts of baby resuscitation." Suddenly, things changed: "However, Praise God (x100!), after removing all the milk from her stomach, she suddenly decided to start breathing again! What a blessing that we had all been there training! A serious case of God’s good timing!"

Dr Sarah, along with others at Kitovu Hospital including Nurse Brigitte, have moved heaven and earth to get this baby unit up and running, managing all the challenges of setting up a new programme in a busy, under-resourced, over-stretched hospital. You too can be part of it - we're looking for regular gifts that can help pay the running costs. And our Miracle Baby, as we call her? She's still doing fine :)

Riot Police and Tear Gas? It must be the Synergy Cup!

January saw the climax of the Synergy Cup - our Community Tournament that we've run every year under various guises since 2004. There was a bit of trouble with fans and managers not accepting referees decisions - they make Sir Alex Ferguson look positively mild mannered - but we only had to rush a tear-gas and shot-gun toting anti-riot police squad to the pitch the once!

Synergy is a light of integrity and discipline in the otherwise murky amoral world of Masaka Football. We showcase local talent, we show how footballing can be done and we preach that Jesus can transform lives! Thankfully our Synergy teams dispatched the worst behaved opposition and our two senior teams and one of our junior teams reached their respective finals. The Juniors lost 2-1, but we saw our reserve team beat the first team on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Three days later we managed to win another tournament! It means that as we commemorate Synergy's first official birthday, we have 3 trophies acquired in the last 2 months to crown our celebrations!

Premature Baby Unit Opens at Kitovu Hospital

Dr Sarah has some INCREDIBLY exciting news to share...

It’s been a loooooooong time coming, but we are finally ready to open our Baby Unit! We want to care for sick and premature babies, at Kitovu Hospital, simply because too many die, and it's heart-breaking.

The room, and some really quite high-tech equipment (mainly donated by some folks in Ireland), has been there for a long time, but the barrier was a lack of nurses to staff the Unit. River of Life has teamed up with Kitovu to resolve this, recruiting donors to finance the salaries of the nurses that are so desperately needed.

I cannot tell you how grateful we all are, both to the individual sponsors helping us to fund this, and to God for getting all the strings pulled together at the right time.... not to mention for teaching us patience (oh, it’s a learning curve!!) as progress can be incredibly slow.

Opening of this Baby Unit will really impact on newborn death rates, not to mention improving general health of babies, at Kitovu Hospital. Our nurses have been brilliant during the training and will be involved in resuscitating sick newborns, caring for them, educating mothers, identifying sick babies, and also picking up on problems in new babies that might otherwise be missed (as they will be doing “baby checks” on each newborn).

We’ll keep you posted on progress - it’s a busy but joyful time right now! Please do pray for further funding, though. We have enough for now, but we are only about half way towards recruiting the necessary number of regular donors to ensure the Unit can continue. If anyone has a real heart for sick or tiny babies, then please do get in touch, download a sponsor form here, or head straight over to our donation page (MyDonate by BT).

Join the New Year +ONE Campaign!

Do you believe everyone can do something for someone?

We do! And we know we're not alone, because thanks to you and everyone else who has given to River of Life, we're able to do a tonne of stuff for some of the neediest people in the world.

Like open a new Neonatal Unit in our local hospital because too many children were dying. Or help nearly 50 orphans and former street children 'fly high' through the White Eagle Project. And that's not to mention the hundreds of children and young people that are getting a chance to realise their potential through Synergy, our community sports programme, or the 10 (so far!) young people we're putting through University as part of our Leadership Academy.

If you haven't been able to join us in the +ONE Campaign, we'd love to invite you to in 2013. There's a whole host of things you could do, from donating directly to fundraising through crazy events. The whole point is to recognise that everyone can do something for someone - whatever you choose to do, please know that every penny makes a difference!

Have a look at some of the ideas below, and if it takes your fancy, click to download the form for more info. Of course, if you have any questions, please contact us.

• Sponsor a place at the Synergy Sports Academy and help youngsters realise their God-given potential
• Sponsor an Orphan or Vulnerable Child to 'Fly High' with the White Eagle Project
• Improve Food Security by "Giving the gift that can't stop giving" and developing the River of Life Farm
• Become a regular donor and keep the new Baby Unit open, saving dozens of poorly babies' lives.
• Raise a new generation of leaders and by sponsoring one of our Leadership Academy members

If you want to join in, and would prefer to set everything up online, just head straight over to our donation page (MyDonate by BT). All of these ideas have recommended gifts, but please feel free to give as much or as little as you can, and together we can make 2013 AWESOME for someone. So, who's your +ONE going to be?

Farming's the future!

It's been a productive season on the River of Life Farm...

Under the management of Uncle Kayima, the team have helped to reduce the food costs for the White Eagle project by supplying good amounts of beans and matooke. Our cash crops are also doing well - a new sugar-cane plantation is looking good, and the Plantain and Coffee we planted in February 2012 is developing well.

Our new piglets are all healthy, and Farmer Kay is adding to our stock by buying in some young pigs of some different (more valuable!) breeds. Our cow is due to give birth next February, so we will then be able to add milk to the White Eagle diet.

For 2013, Farmer Kayima is REALLY keen to establish a small chicken project. Well, 600 chickens to be exact, because, as he explains Chickens are great - they offer eggs AND meat. Tasty. He also wants to build a store so that we can get good prices for our produce, and consolidate the other areas or planting. The Farm is not self-sufficient just-yet, but it will be once all the development is done, as well as offering food security and reducing our costs at River of Life Church

Thank you to everyone who has "given the gift that can't stop giving" and helped develop the farm. If you would like to help, get in touch! £500 is enough to establish an acre, contribute to 20% of the start-up costs for the chickens or 10% of the store. You could do a sponsored event, or split the cost on a monthly basis - click here to download a sponsor form, or head straight over to our donation page (MyDonate by BT).

Sarah's Story - Latest news from the Girls Home Aunty

Hellooooooooooo!!! I’m aware that I’ve not written to anyone at all for a while, and I have not done any newsletters for 2 and a half months.... Let me bring you up to date with my news:

The last term has been rather a whirl of activity!!!!!....

The kids have completed their final term of the school year, and are on holiday again. As usual, the school term consisted of waking up RIDICULOUSLY early in the morning (- they have to get up at 5.30am!.....What’s that all about?!?! ), getting the kids to do their homework, and visiting the occasional school.... which is always an interesting experience!.... You can see a picture of me above getting absolutely mobbed by about 40 three year olds when I went to one of the schools in November (I’m on the very left of the picture) – They were all asking me if I lived in the TV, if I was real or a ghost, and if my white skin would rub off revealing black skin underneath!!! Then they all sang for me for about 20 minutes.... it was soooooo cute!!!

Four of our residential White Eagles from the WEP home have both been in boarding school for the last two years, so we were reeeeeeally happy to receive them back home this November after they did their final “Primary Leaving Examination” (which is what the last 2 years of crazily studying 16 hours a day, 7 days a week in boarding school, with only a few days holiday in the whole year, and eating disgusting beans and posho (a food made of flour and water) for lunch AND dinner, EVERY SINGLE DAY, has been leading up to!!!). They all came home and slept almost solidly for several days, waking up just long enough to stuff their faces with mountains of food (unless beans and posho was on the menu)!!!

We had a few kids admitted to hospital (mostly with Malaria) over the last few months, which means that we have to have members of staff staying at the hospital (day and night) because the nurses in Uganda don’t do anything apart from give medicine and take blood (- from what I’ve observed, anyway!), and it’s necessary for family/friends to stay with a patient all the time to help them with everything else (e.g. make food, fetch water from outside, etc.). So the White Eagle staff have been rather busy with all of the hospital stays on top of their normal work! We’re very happy, though, because we just got a new male member of staff working with us, who is helping with the daily running of the project, among other things, so life should be slightly easier from now on!

For the last month, the kids have been on holiday, and I’ve been running the holiday programme with them. I decided that I wanted to start celebrating Christmas, so they’ve been doing aerobics to my Christmas songs, making Christmas decorations with Lois (a volunteer from the UK), and even making marzipan Father Christmases and snowmen, as you can see in the picture (- the kids loved doing this.... apparently there’s little better in life than “playdough” that can be eaten after you’ve finished modelling it!!!). I’ve put a couple of pictures below of some of our White Eagle children getting rather excited during the holiday programme!

On 8th December we said “Goodbye!” to the 10 young men who had been living in the WEP boys’ home. They’ve all moved out to live either with relatives, or to rent rooms. It’s quite a bit quieter around the project without them(!), although the remaining children are trying their hardest to make up for it! There’s a picture below of some of them with their relatives - we’ve spent the last few years trying to reunite them with their families, and the day was a testimony to the success of that, as all of them had relatives there to support them.

I’ve been keeping you updated on the progress of my friend Nampijja who was paralysed 2 years ago in a car accident.... Well!!!! Wait for it!!!!....... She’s now able to walk outside for 45 minutes with no walking aid or anything, and has learnt to sew on a foot-pedal operated sewing machine, and is doing absolutely amazing!!!! It’s a real miracle, and she came to River of Life Church when we had our last “Testimony Sunday” to share her testimony of what God has done in her life, which was really exciting!!!

At the moment, I’m rather excited, because I’m preparing to come home to England on Friday of this week!!!! Woohoo!!!! I’m soooooooooooooooo looking forward to spending Christmas with family and friends, to seeing everyone, to singing carols, to eating AMAZING food, and to having electricity and water (-our electricity and water supplies have been rather terrible of late, and I’m getting really tired of bucket baths and torches!)!!! I’m going to be in England for a couple of months this time, and I aim to have a very good rest after a very busy year, but I also hope to be able to catch up with lots of you .

Anyway, that’s my news! I reeeeally look forward to seeing most of you soon!!!!

Loads of love,

Sarah

Au revoir White Eagles!

On 8th December we held a moving Graduation Ceremony and said “Au revoir!” to 10 of our White Eagles. They are now all over the age of 18, so it was time for them to move on from the White Eagles' Home.

They’ve all moved out to live either with relatives, or to rent rooms independently in Masaka. The White Eagle team have spent the last few years working hard to reunite and reconcile these young men with their families, and the Ceremony was testimony to the value and success of that work, as all of them had relatives there to support them.

It’s certainly a lot quieter around the project now these young men have moved on, although the remaining children are trying their hardest to make up for it!

But although they have graduated from the White Eagle Project, they certainly haven't left the River of Life nest quite yet. We've established a new programme to continue supporting them. Seven will be supported in their final year of school (Senior 4), two are in the penultimate year (Senior 3) and one, our very own Mr Tony who has been with us since the beginning, has just completed his O Levels, and will join our Leadership Academy.

So we will continue to support, mentor and work with them to continue to help them to Fly High!

If you would like to support the work of the White Eagles, or the Leadership Academy, please get in touch, download a sponsorship form here, or head straight over to our donation page (MyDonate by BT).