Visiting Nazareth Children's Home

One of the ministries of River of Life is to regularly visit an orphanage about a mile up the road from us called Nazareth Children's Home. We've been doing this for about 6 months - taking a team of the White Eagles to help wash, cook, clean and generally help out. Yesterday we visited with 5 of the younger White Eagles - Kisakye, Kevin, Juuko Ivan, Ivan Mukissa, and Teddy.

Nazareth is run by an elderly lady called Josephine, with two helpers - Carolyn and Pross. Between them they're looking after what must be more than 25 kids, half of them under 3, on very limited resources. Babies are often abandoned there - in fact the latest arrival of a healthy looking 4/5 month boy was just yesterday morning.

I was last there in September, and 2 very malnourished babies, Babiriye and Josephine, were really struggling - you can read about it in the November Newsletter. Through some generous supporters we were able to get them on to a feeding program at the local Mission Hospital and we have been providing good milk for them since they've been discharged.

They're hardly recognizable from the babies we met 4 months ago - alert and healthy, it was awesome to sit and play with them. Hopefully they are none the worse for their ordeal and won't have suffered any lasting damage from being so malnourished.

But whist we were there, one of the oldest lads, who has been there for years, suffered an epileptic fit. All I could do was sit with him, pray for him, and hold his head to stop him from bashing it against the wall, and make sure he didn't put his fingers anywhere hear his mouth. Of course there is no money for medication to manage the fits - when you're struggling to feed 25+ kids you're forced to make difficult decisions on priorities.

We're praying about whether we can step up our commitment to Nazareth and provide more ongoing support. It's such a wonderful place - and the kids are so so friendly - it's a real blessing to be there and in the face of such challenges experience real joy.

The Big Give!

It's been an incredible two days - a real roller coaster. Monday saw the launch of The Big Give Double Donation - an unprecedented initiative taken by The Big Give and the Reed Foundation to match £1million worth of donations going through the site. Every donation, up to a certain amount, would be doubled until the £1million ran out. With over 5,000 charities eligible, the offer wasn't ever going to last for long!

15 minutes after the launch, the response had been so overwhelming that the Big Give had to temporarily suspend the scheme - until midday today when it all kicked off again. Once the dust settles we'll know how many people were able to donate through the site.

With the current challenges facing River of Life - the double whammy of plummeting exchange rates and high inflation - this could be a really decent boost to our funds as we seek to finish the boys home, get more children at risk into school and take on more community care work through our Mercy Missions.

A big thank you to everyone who made donations!

Crane Mail is launched (finally!)

After months of promising we're going to launch Crane Mail - the email newsleter from River of Life - we have finally managed to do it! We hope you like the result...

The December 08 Crane Mail contains links to download the latest newsletter, which was published end of November, as well as drawing attention to The Big Give, and our brand new Christmas Gifts Catalogue, which you can download from the website!

River of Life photos on Flickr

We've posted a whole load of photos on Flickr to help you get more of an idea of what's going on at River of Life.

You can view the slideshow by clicking here

There's a set of photos specifically about Babiyire and Josephine, two very malnourished babies that were abandoned at Nazareth Children's Home, an orphanage a mile up the road from River of Life where the White Eagles help out. These images are quite distressing - Babiyire and Josephine were very very thin - but after 4 weeks at Kitovu hospital in the Intensive Feeding ward they were discharged positively plump!

What an amazing trip!

As predicted, it was nigh on impossible to find time to update the blog, even if we had had the internet connection! Our - Rob, Katharine, Christina, Sarah and Sarah - trip to Uganda was absolutely brilliantly awesome! For me (Rob), it was the first time I'd been for 2 years, and it was SO good to see everyone again. I felt proper parental as I proudly saw 'my' kids grown up - there's something immensely powerful about seeing the White Eagles shaking free of everything that has held them back, as they respond to the love and care our wonderful staff give them. Don't get me wrong - it's no bed of roses. You put 27 boys in to the same house, or 7 girls in the same house, you're going to get some fruity moments - the boys being fruitier. But I am absolutely buzzing with excitement with seeing the White Eagle girls and boys blossoming...

I can hardly do the trip justice here - others are far better wordsmiths than me. Some of what we got up to will come through other blog articles as I update progress and news on existing projects, and new ones. But what I probably won't be able to do is fully communicate the real depth of excitement I feel about the work we're doing. I love it! I absolutely love it. There is nothing I'd rather be doing.

Going to Uganda...

In a week, five of us are off to Uganda, including 3 girls who have never been before - Sarah, Sarah and Christina. We hope to keep you updated with what we get up to, but bearing in mind how Tim struggles to get internet access, we might not manage it.

September is school holidays for the White Eagles, so we'll be doing a full programme of activities for the kids for the 2 weeks we're there, as well as reviewing progress on building the boys home, looking at the farm project we have, checking out the new White Eagle Families scheme and all the other amazing things that are going on...

We've been blown away with the response to the bike ride!

Unbelievable! We've had an amazing response to the sponsored bike ride - we've raised nearly £17,000! That's beyond our wildest dreams, and has prompted us to plan to keep going with the next phase - building the retaining wall to hold up the terrace it's all being built on. In the picture you can see the new kitchen and store going up... If you've donated or supported us in any way, thank you so much!



Also, the On-yer-Bike-for-River-of-Life escapade has inspired Damien 'the saddle' Dacey and Tim 'free wheelin' Burbidge down in Bristol to do even more! 60 miles will be nothing to them as they battle 600, yes 600 miles across France to the med! Respec' to them!