Sanyu Babies Home

I am doing all these posts out of order but on one morning towards the end of our trip, we helped at a Babies Orphanage in Kampala Uganda. All the babies at this home were abandoned or given up. Most of them were left at the nearby hospital where they were left or dropped off or they were found abandoned. The home has about 45 babies. They age in range from newborn up to 4 years. Once they reach the age of 4, if they have not been adopted they are sent to another orphanage more like an institution. They don't expect them to be adopted at that point. They live there until they are 18 when they are put out on the street.

At the hospital we played, read stories and rocked the babies. At lunch time we helped feed them. It put the mealtime chaos at my house to shame. Some of the babies were crying and trying to climb out of their highchairs. A few of them were poking the baby next to them but most of them sat still with their big eyes glued on us waiting for the food. Each of us had one bowl of food with 3-4 spoons. I just alternated down the line feeding each baby. After lunch we took them in a big room, removed their clothes and sat them on a baby toilet. Most of them had already soiled their pants but they sat there anyway. Then we re-dressed them, found the crib with their name on it and put them to bed. Most of them didn't want us to put them in bed knowing full well that when they wake up we will be gone and there will be nobody there. There were about 6 or 7 ladies on staff but half of them were out back washing the clothing in tubs of water and hanging it to dry. I imagine the clothes washing takes all day and continues everyday. The infants had towels on them as cloth diapers. They had us put 2 towels around them so it would take longer to leak through, that way they didn't have to change them as often.

It was heart breaking to see these babies and know that a Mom had actually left them behind. No matter how hard life was, she didn't fight for them or their future. One of the babies had been abandoned at the hospital the day before we were there. We had been white water rafting that morning. I thought about how while I had been out on the Nile River having a great time there was a young woman who made the life changing decision to leave the life that she brought into this world behind and move forward without him. The baby was darling. He was maybe a month old. The Babies Home had not yet named him.

It was a really neat experience to spend time with these special babies. Most of them have rough roads and lot's of disappointments ahead of them but I could feel the love that our Savior has for them. They have not been forgotten and I pray that homes and opportunities will shine for each of them.