Ugandans Adopt

Tag: Malaika Babies Home

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adoption open day event Video

Bonding, attunement and attachment in adoption.

Sarah Mirembe speaks at the get together

“Attunement is the perfect sync where my child will cry and I will know exactly why” Sarah Mirembe, child psychologist, Right to Improved Child Health (RICH Consult)

At our recent adoptive and prospective adoptive parents get together, we had an open forum where parents could share their worries and their joys about adoption. Sarah joined us and spoke on three key issues: bonding, attunement and attachment.

Adopting a child is an incredibly rewarding experience for many parents whether or not they have biological children of their own however, like most things, it doesn’t come without some worries. One of the biggest worries that parents can have is whether they’ll be able to bond with their adopted child.

Bonding or attachment refers to the emotional connection or the strength of the relationship between one person and another. In parenting terms, bonding is the relationship which develops between a parent and their child.

Bonding is crucial to the healthy development of an infant’s brain during the first two years of their life. It is most is successful when there is constant communication and contact between the mother or primary care giver and baby. In most cases, bonding is easiest when the child is adopted in infancy.

At Malaika Babies’ Home, once a child arrives they’re assigned one carer for the duration of their stay. This is so they can form attachments with their primary care giver and help to ensure healthy development. When an adoptive parent is matched with the child, there is a transitional period whereby the parent is able to spend time bonding with them before taking them home. This is also important for the child to transition the bond that they’ve developed with their carer. As all our children will have already formed healthy attachments this should be a time of great joy for both parent and child as they get to know one another. When the time comes to take their child home there should already be a strong bond developing between them which will only strengthen after more time together.

Carers at Malaika Babies Home

 

Could you give a child a loving family? For more information on adoption please send an email to [email protected] or call 0776110304

To watch the rest of Sarah’s presentation, click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSS2dISFKPU

 

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adoption open day

CEO Lucy on Malaika Babies’ Home Third Birthday

We celebrated Malaika Babies Home 3rd birthday. Special thanks to our Communications Manager Aidah Agwang, Immaculate Atwine our Care Home Manager and Maureen Orogot for organizing such a great day.

Over 50 guests came to celebrate with us including other babies homes around Kampala including Sanyu Babies Home, Dwelling Places, An Open Door, Kaja Nafasi, Abana Ministries, Youth For Christ Uganda and Action For Children.

We were very happy to see Zaina, Michael and Agnes from Kampala City Council Authority Probation service – they work around the clock giving us care orders and we could not do our job without them.

Many children are referred to us by the Police Child Protection Unit so we were delighted to see Ketty Nandi, Stella and Carol. In the middle of the party we gave them, Carol Bankusha and Zaina a sneak preview of the video of the ‘Working Together’ Conference which will be releasing soon.

 

Police Officer Ketty Nandi

A few years ago adoption was practically unheard of here in Uganda, thanks to the government lead Ugandan’s Adopt campaign it is becoming more and more popular. We could not do this without the help of the media and we’d like to thanks Esther Namirimu and Penlope Nankunda from the New Vision, Sarah from UBC radio and Eseza from WBS who produced a children’s show all about Malaika!

Ugandans Adopt 100 babies

We were very happy to see adoptive parents Amelo and Christina who bought with them friends who have been inspired by their adoptions and filled our expression of interest form to start the adoption process. We don’t actually have any children currently available for adoption and a waiting list of Ugandan families who have been assessed and approved by the Panel waiting for a baby so we hope the babies homes around Kampala will work with us so more children grow up in families in Uganda.

Adoptive parent Amelo with her beautiful daughter.

Other wonderful guests included Julian from NSSF and Edith from Crane Bank, Social Workers from Mengo Hospital and Rubaga Hospital, our Local Councilor came to show his support and celebrity Barbara ‘Barbie’ Kyagulanyi wife of musician Bobi Wine bought donations and cuddles for the children.

Barbie cuddling a baby at Malaika Babies Home.

You might be wondering how we managed to get such incredible images capturing the day? That’s because Steve Greenaway www.stevegreenaway.com a remarkably kind and generous photographer from Australia is over for 10 days volunteering his expertise to work with me on a very exciting campaign which I cannot wait to share with you. Child’s i Foundation relies of people like Steve and you giving us your love, time and money and we cannot do this without you. Thank you.

 

 

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adoption Uncategorized

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY MALAIKA BABIES HOME

On Wednesday the 15th May 2013, the children and Staff of Malaika Babies Home celebrated their third birthday with an open day.  Malaika Babies Home in Mengo has provided emergency short-term care to over 130 babies. Over the past three years they have successfully found families in Uganda for 100 of these children through resettlement and domestic adoption. Their Social Work team put a lot of time and resources into tracing families and as a result 66% of these children have been resettled with their extended families.

Birthday Cake

 

 

 

 

The open day which was crowned with the cutting of the cake by the children at Malaika Babies Home was attended by  many guests including staff from other babies’ homes around Kampala, the Police Child Protection Unit, Probation officers, Social workers and adoptive parents who bought their children along to the celebration.

Nandi Ketti (carrying the baby) a Police Officer, Zainah a senior probation Officer and a guest at the Open day

Among the well-wishers was Barbie, Bobi Wine’s wife who donated an assortment of items to Malaika Babies Home. “It has been a wonderful day and we are very grateful for all the support of our supporters, the Probation, Police and other children’s homes” says Immaculate Atwine, the Manager of the Babies Home “Only by working together we can find families in Uganda for abandoned children

Barbie at Malaika Babies Home.

To see The New Vision’s article on the above, click on the link below:

Ugandans Adopt 100 babies

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adoption

A Mother’s love: Maria and Patricia’s Story

One of the many single Mothers who has adopted from us.

 

At Ugandans Adopt, we think all of our little ones are special. We couldn’t possibly choose favorites but sometimes it’s hard to describe how wonderful these little people are.

Patricia arrived at the  Babies Home after she was abandoned at Mulago Hospital. Our social work team spent over three months trying to trace her family, including placing adverts in local media. After they’d exhausted all possible leads we made the decision to try and find her an adoptive family.

Patricia was then matched with Maria, already a mother to a seven year old girl and a successful hairdresser. However, our social work team deemed her home unsuitable for a young baby and were unable to approve the match – but Maria was determined that nothing could keep them apart.

Patricia and Mum

 

It took three months, but Maria persevered. She managed to move to a new place which our social workers approved and, after spending time bonding with Patricia, she finally took her daughter home. We have  visited them over time and are always  delighted to find a very happy mum and baby. Patricia spends almost all of her time in mums lap or  next to her – it’s clear they absolutely adore each other. It is always wonderful to see the transformation in Patricia, too. At the Babies Home she was always a cheerful baby, although sometimes quite shy, but with her new family she seems almost ecstatic. She is  constantly smiling and Maria tells us she loves being pampered!

Thanks to Maria, who wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of  her love for her child, Patricia has the chance to grow up in a loving family. And thanks to Maria for helping us to make families, not orphans.

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adoption

Spreading the Adoption Gospel

Of Adoption and delayed Obedience at Refreshing Assemblies Muyenga .

Last Sunday, as it slowly drizzled  with rain we thought to ourselves  this is a blessing. Mother Nature was  rooting for us on this particular Sunday morning. The previous mornings had been characterized by heavy rain downpours – but not this morning. By 9am we were at Refreshing Assemblies church in the green and quiet suburbs of Muyenga hill.

As soon as we entered the church we could feel the close knit relationship of this congregation. We were greeted by an usher at the entrance and with warm smiles as we made our way in. We felt at home right away.

After the praise and worship session, Pastor Moses introduced us to the crowd. He spoke very graciously about our mission at Child’s i Foundation before I took the floor. As I held the microphone I felt calm as I couldn’t wait (and because I had spent half the night going through the presentation and my notes!) When the words Ugandans Adopt flashed across the screen I was ready.

                                                                  Part of the Ugandans Adopt Team at the presentation.

Our team was talking to the congregation about domestic Adoption and fostering in Uganda. We were taking the congregation through what it means to adopt, who can adopt and why Ugandans should adopt. And above all what it means to open up their hearts and homes to these abandoned children. How time flew fast

The highlight of the presentation was when we played Katie’s story  and saw  different emotions play out on the congregations’ faces. There was sadness, pain and then joy.Katie was abandoned a few hours after birth.However she found love and a family through adoption.

                                                                                    Katie and Mum.

When I finished, there was deafening silence. For a split second I was not sure what to expect until the congregation broke out into thunderous applause. It was the most rewarding experience.

Pastor Moses took over the pulpit and spoke about adoption and the church. He passionately appealed to the congregation to listen to their hearts, ending with “delayed obedience is disobedience.”

After the service we had a great time meeting the congregation members. The great news is most of the members asked for directions to Malaika Babies Home, our transitional care centre. The women’s group headed by Pastor Moses’ wife has pledged to visit Malaika as part of their outreach, too. Even better news is that we have two new prospective adoptive parents. Over all it was a Sunday well spent.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Pastor Moses and everyone at Refreshing Assemblies church for welcoming us – and for pledging to support us in any way they can.

We would love to visit your church, school, organization or business to talk about Ugandans Adopt. If you would like us to come along and present or if you’re interested in learning more about adoption please email [email protected] or call us on 0794948309.

 

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adoption Uncategorized

Child’s i 2012 Media Campaign

 

Our Adoption & Fostering campaign billboard in Kampala

 

Although adoption is slowly becoming more common in Uganda, there is still a great need for new foster and adoptive parents, especially for older children and boys.

The aim  of 2012 media campaign was to increase our number of potential adoptive parents, as well as introducing the concept of short and long term foster care to Ugandans with the hope that we would be able to recruit 2 long term foster carers for children who have outgrown Malaika Babies Home.

I came out from the UK for 6 weeks to produce this campaign, and started negotiating with companies as soon as I landed, trying to ensure that we could agree advertising deals as soon as possible.

We were lucky enough to have the amazing Limehouse Creative team on board for this campaign. They designed both of our billboards free of charge, and did a great job. We organised a photo shoot with Kampala based photographer Anne Ackermann, and spent a stressful few hours on the roof of a local shopping centre trying to capture images that would work for our campaign.

 

Joey, the first child to be adopted from Malaika was our billboard star, appearing on both billboards, and we have had lots of comments from people who’ve seen his face looking down at them whilst they are stuck in traffic on Jinja Rd telling us how powerful his image is.Ad Concepts kindly gave us 2 months advertising space for free, and the 8 metre by 10 metre billboard is in a great location.

For the first time we  decided to advertise on digital billboard screens – one at the large Oasis shopping mall, and one in one of Kampala’s busiest taxi parks.

Emmanuel with Rogers at Radio Simba producing our radio ads for the media campaignWe also produced a television advert to run on NTV, featuring family support worker Lydia and her family. Lydia has adopted her two youngest children, and the whole family got involved in the filming of our advert, with the youngest two boys fascinated by our camera equipment!

[youtube=http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVjqnxiCZc]

Although most of the content for our media campaign was produced in English, we decided to run a series of adverts in the local Luganda language on Radio Simba. We’re grateful to Rogers Mugerwa and his team for their continued support of the work that we’re doing.

 

We produced a Talk Show to run on national tv station NTV, and our amazing panel of guests, James Kaboggoza the Assistant Commissioner for Children, social worker Barbra and adoptive parent Christina Sempebwa debated issues connected to foster care and adoption as well as taking viewers calls. Presenter Ben Mwine did a great job, and the whole team felt extremely proud once the programme came off air.

Early in this trip I was asked to produce a documentary for the Ugandan government exploring Alternative Care. Myself and media volunteer Emma Hegarty spent a week working flat out on this projec

t and the finished documentary aired immediately after the Talk Show.

The first media campaign that we ran in 2011 resulted in over 150 potential adoptive parents contacting us, and to date 30 of our children have now been adopted. They are enjoying the chance to grow up in loving supportive families and we very much hope that this year’s campaign will result in similar outcomes for more of the children currently resident at Malaika Babies Home.

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adoption open day open day event

Adoptive Parents Coffee Morning

Families for Children hold regular coffee mornings and training session for adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. This is usually a moment where parents who are adopting or thinking about adoption, meet together for a cup of coffee to share experiences, challenges, common issues on adoption and  gain support from each other.

 

 

Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents listen  to the main speaker of the day during the last coffee morning get together.

A big number of  Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents showed up at the last  Coffee Morning that was held  on 23rd March 2013 s at CRANE/VIVA Offices in Namirembe.We had a great time getting to know each other, sharing experiences and laughing over our cups of coffee.

Please mark  20th April 2013 on your calendars. It will be the day when   a one day adoptive and prospective adoptive parents training  will be conducted from 9:00am to 3:30pm .A contribution by each  parent attending of  20,000 shillings only  goes towards their break tea, Lunch and certificates at the end of the training.

You are also encouraged to inform other prospective and adoptive parents and fostering parents about these events or forward these dates to them and encourage them to attend as well.

For more information: Email Roger Mbazira at [email protected]