Fostering Uganda''s children is our call

Apr 28, 2015

At her home in the suburbs of Wakiso, Doreen Kyomugisha cuddles and rocks four-month-old Anita who is making baby noises without a care in the world. Before long, she is asleep and is taken to bed. Eight-month-old Peter wakes up almost immediately. “That is their sleeping sequence,” Kyomugisha says

BY HELLEN MUTONI

At her home in the suburbs of Wakiso, Doreen Kyomugisha cuddles and rocks four-month-old Anita who is making baby noises without a care in the world. Before long, she is asleep and is taken to bed. Eight-month-old Peter wakes up almost immediately. “That is their sleeping sequence,” Kyomugisha says while emerging from the bedroom with him. Peter is a very bubbly baby.

The social worker, with whom I go with to Kyomugisha’s home, is surprised that Peter no longer cries, “he used to cry a lot, I am surprised he is calm now,” she quips. Looking at these two babies, you would think they are Kyomugisha’s children, until you discover their plight. Anita’s mother left her at a traditional healer’s home.

She came on a bodaboda, entered the house and asked for sh5,000 to pay the bodaboda cyclist. The traditional healer’s daughter, who she found in the home told her she did not have money.

Anita’s mother then asked to leave Anita with her for a short while so that she could go to her friend in the neighbourhood and get money to pay. Anita’s mother told the same story to the cyclist and never returned

Peter was left at on a verandah in Wakiso at 10:00pm. He is believed to have been at least five days old because his umbilical cord had not yet fallen off.Whereas the babies thrived in terms of health, when they were taken into Kyomugisha’s home, they were failing to cope socially

Peter would throw tantrums, while Anita was too withdrawn. Kyomugisha took them on under a short-term foster care programme that was being piloted at Ugandans Adopt.

According to James Kaboggoza Ssembatya, the assistant commissioner of children’s affairs at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social development, the concept of shortterm foster care ensures children are not subjected to institutional care.

This enables the child to grow up in a family setting. “It also provides an opportunity for foster parents considering adoption to stay with a child and see if they are compatible,” he adds.

Short-term foster care

Many abandoned babies end up in institutional care and orphanages. This can be harmful to their mental and physical development.

According to UNICEF statistics, as many as eight million children are spending their childhood in institutions. In most cases, children receive food, clothes, a cot or bed, an education and a roof over their heads. They even get the love, support and sense of identity that only a loving family can give.

Family life is critical to a child’s healthy development. According to Immaculate Atwine Byaruhanga, a transitional care specialist, short-term foster care is where abandoned children are placed in loving families who provide temporary care in a real family setting.

“The organisation continues meeting the child’s basic needs like education and health. All one has to do is provide a home and love for the child. So that they do not have delayed milestones,” she adds. While a child is being cared for in this way, social workers trace their relatives and reunite the child with their family.

If those attempts are unsuccessful, a child can go on to be placed permanently with adoptive parents. Whatever the outcome is, whether resettlement or adoption, in the meantime the child will have been loved, supported and nurtured in a family.

The child will have started to form secure attachments which they can continue to develop when placed with a permanent family.


Children need a family environment to grow better

Could you provide a loving home?

Ugandans Adopt is piloting a short-term foster care programme and is looking for foster parents in and around Kampala. Though abandoned, these children deserve to grow up in a family setting, rather than being raised in an institution without a family.

Shortterm foster care makes a significant and lasting difference to a child’s health and happiness, giving them the best possible start in life and a happy yet healthy future. You can give an abandoned child the love and care they need until a family is found for them. If you have room in your heart and home to provide an abandoned baby with a loving family, Ugandans Adopt would love to hear from you.

Events

If you are unable to adopt or foster, but would still like to support the Ugandans Adopt Campaign, we welcome you to our prospective and adoptive/foster parents get together to be held on May 2.

Come along and meet some of the children in need of foster and adoptive parents. You are also welcome to a fundraising dinner that will be held on June 13 at 7:00pm at the Serena Hotel ballroom to raise awareness about adoption and short–term foster care. For more information on these events and more, visit our website, http://ugandansadopt.ug c or all us on 0776110304.

HELP A CHILD FIND A FAMILY

Ugandans Adopt is calling on all Ugandan families and individuals who are able and willing to care for abandoned children for short term foster care to reach them.
Contact them on;
Phone: 0776110304 or 0776110303
Email: adoption@Ugandansadopt.ug
Website: http://ugandansadopt.ug
Facebook: https:www.facebook.com/UgandansAdopt

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