Amani Baby Cottage

Addendum: This journal entry was simply my interpretation of what I experienced that day. I may have gotten some of the facts wrong.




Today we went to Amani Baby Cottage to drop off formula and blankets. It was another amazing day. We headed out at 10am and this time we took a taxi to hall all the stuff. Boda bodas are fairly convenient but not if you are carrying a load.
I love Amani Baby Cottage! As we pulled up to the gate I was instantly impressed with the excellence in which the grounds are maintained. The large yellow compound stood like a rock against the lush green grass and trees surrounding it. A huge tree in the front yard hosted a tree house and a tire swing. There were several groups of young children playing on the lawn closely supervised by “mamas”.
We were greeted by the supervisor of the facility. She thanked us for coming and was overjoyed when we pulled out the formula and other supplies. She exclaimed that they never run out, it just seems that the Lord provides just as they are getting low on things. As she walked us up the small hill to the clinic where they treat the sick babies, she explained to us that they currently have 43 children, all ages up to 5 years old. Amini Baby Cottage has been in operation for 5 years and adopted out their first 10 children just a few months ago. Since that time, all of the children have been spoken for, although it takes a process of over 2 ½ years to actually take the baby home. Several of these children are HIV positive or have other health issues that require close supervision.
She then showed us around the facility and the different baby quarters. They currently have around 14 volunteers from all over the world that work full time. They also have a full staff of “human washing machines”. At least a quarter of the back yard had clothes lines fully laden with drying baby clothes and diapers, with at least 4 women washing and rinsing. The outdoor kitchen has 3 cooks that prepare 3 meals a day for the children.
Almost all of the children they currently have came from the hospital where they had been dropped off. I learned that in Uganda if a mother is caught abandoning her child anywhere but the hospital, they are convicted and placed in jail for a period of time. However, if they abandon their baby to the hospital, there is no prosecution and the government deals with placing the baby in a home. Amani has a few real “orphans” but most of them have simply been abandoned by their mothers.
At the end of the tour, we each went to help out in different areas of the cottage for a few hours. I choose to go in with the newborns - is there any other place to be if given the option? They currently have three - Mabra Mabra They are both HIV positive and their mother died at birth. Their father brought them to the home because he was unable to care for them. During feeding time, a volunteer from Uganda, came and sat with me. I asked her how long she had been volunteering at the home. She said she had been there for 5 months and is 7 months pregnant. She came to volunteer because she is only 17 and her parents had disowned her when they learned she was pregnant. A friend brought her to the cottage hoping that she would learn how to care for her baby.
After feeding time all the children took a nap and we had the opportunity to meet the director of the cottage, She has an incredible story of how the home was founded. Long story shorter, she said she had been a “professional bum” for ten years. She had graduated and started volunteering for short and long term mission trips around the world and managed to end up in Uganda when she was around 30. At that time she was working with an orphanage in Jinja (the same compound I am staying at right now, when it was an orphanage). She spent two years here and then decided to adopt two Ugandan girls. She was single at the time, and her dad sat her down one day and told her that if she adopted these girls she would greatly decrease her chance of ever getting married. She laughed and reminded her dad that here she was at 32 and had never had anyone remotely interested in marrying her up to that point, so why not increase the odds all the more?
Shortly after, the founder and director of the home she was working in died suddenly and through a series of events, suddenly found herself director of a new orphanage, Amani Baby Cottage. The first day they were official with the government, they were given 12 children and have grown every day since.