Mother for all seasons falls
Oct 08, 2003
When Jacqueline Hodgkins (55) breathed her last on July 22 this year, all who knew her were shocked upon receiving the news.<br>She was a committed Christian and child activist with compassion for abandoned and orphaned infants and a caring and loving mother.
By Moses Nampala
in Jinja
When Jacqueline Hodgkins (55) breathed her last on July 22 this year, all who knew her were shocked upon receiving the news.
She was a committed Christian and child activist with compassion for abandoned and orphaned infants and a caring and loving mother.
The death certificate issued by the hospital authorities in America where she died, reported that the immediate cause of her death was Metastac Adenocarci-noma (cancer that caused her belly to swell).
Hodgkins, who preferred to be called “Mommy Jackie,†was an American, who exuded a selfless, dedicated personality. She stood against getting ashamed of pouring out her love and tender to black infants.
Until her death, she was running a foster home called Welcome Home at Waibale Road, Jinja Central Division. The home caters for 54 infants, aged between one week and eight months.
She died at a time when cases of child neglect are on the increase, as prevalence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and social vices like defilement and rape are on the rise.
Vulnerability of women in this era of the AIDS scourge and social vices has left them with no choice but to opt for cruel means of disowning their children at birth.
“When I received the sad news of her death, I felt a cold shiver run through my body. The sight of the babies who were still awake that I was tending to at that moment, evoked my emotions,†said Jane Mukyala, a senior caretaker at Welcome Home.
I was reduced to tears at the thought of the future of these infants, now that the person who cared for them was dead,†said Mukyala.
The last memorable task, three weeks before Mommy Jackie died, would vividly bring out her devotion towards the children.
“She went to the United States along with an injured infant called Billy,†William Edima, a driver of the Welcome Home van narrates.
Billy, now aged eight months, could have been burnt with hot water or acid by his mother. His mother had abandoned him by the roadside with wounds all over his face, when he was only a month old.
Mommy Jackie had taken custody of Billy when a probation officer in Mukono called on her,†Edima narrates.
When she was leaving for the US, she said: “I am leaving for the States to seek for a hospital that can offer Billy special medical attention. Billy requires plastic surgery. I desperately want the deformed facial features to be fixed before he is of age. “Take care of my children at home. I will be back soon.â€
Those were her last words to Edima, who drove her to the airport. Little did she know that nature had other plans for her.
Mommy Jackie often brought home infants with huge staring eyes and painfully thin bodies.
Usually the new infants were quiet, because they were always starved and ill. Mommy Jackie was always optimistic, recalls Afuwa Tibigwa, who worked as a caretaker at the home for five years.
“She would cuddle the infant and would fondly say: I know you are going to be all right,†says Tibigwa.
Sometimes death would defy her spirited efforts to save the life of an infant. Then she would torture herself with a series of “I wish I had known the plight of this child before, it would have survived.â€
The fallen infants were usually buried at the Welcome Home cemetery, at Mailo Mbili, in Jinja municipality.
At the end of a number of burials, she would say: “When I die, I want to be buried here with my children.†Indeed the board of donors and her family honoured her wish. When she died, her body was cremated and the ashes were flown to Uganda and buried at Mailo Mbili.
At the home, she would shout out in anger to lazy caretakers who neglected a crying baby. But her outburst was never misplaced, recalls Mukyala.
She was born in 1948, in California, USA. She was a graduate of Molody School of theology in California. Mommy Jackie became a born again Christian in 1973, says Bill Henning her foster parent.
She first set up an orphanage in Bija California, USA. “Her first orphanage was sheltered under a tent. Leaving in the orphanage throughout her childhood drove her to have compassion for neglected children.
However, in 1990 she moved to Africa, on learning that children in Uganda and Rwanda were dying because there was nobody to take care of them, the endless wars and the HIV/AIDS pandemic,†says Henning.
In 1993, she established an orphanage in Kenya “But the woeful needy orphans in Rwanda touched her heart more,†he adds.
However, she did not stay long in Rwanda due to insecurity there. “While there, she was robbed twice and badly beaten,†Says Henning.
However, she did not lose faith in her dream of caring for abandoned children.
In 1995, she came to Uganda, and made it her home. She never looked back until the time of her death.
However, donors in USA who have been funding the home are committed to take over Mommy Jackie’s work.
in Jinja
When Jacqueline Hodgkins (55) breathed her last on July 22 this year, all who knew her were shocked upon receiving the news.
She was a committed Christian and child activist with compassion for abandoned and orphaned infants and a caring and loving mother.
The death certificate issued by the hospital authorities in America where she died, reported that the immediate cause of her death was Metastac Adenocarci-noma (cancer that caused her belly to swell).
Hodgkins, who preferred to be called “Mommy Jackie,†was an American, who exuded a selfless, dedicated personality. She stood against getting ashamed of pouring out her love and tender to black infants.
Until her death, she was running a foster home called Welcome Home at Waibale Road, Jinja Central Division. The home caters for 54 infants, aged between one week and eight months.
She died at a time when cases of child neglect are on the increase, as prevalence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and social vices like defilement and rape are on the rise.
Vulnerability of women in this era of the AIDS scourge and social vices has left them with no choice but to opt for cruel means of disowning their children at birth.
“When I received the sad news of her death, I felt a cold shiver run through my body. The sight of the babies who were still awake that I was tending to at that moment, evoked my emotions,†said Jane Mukyala, a senior caretaker at Welcome Home.
I was reduced to tears at the thought of the future of these infants, now that the person who cared for them was dead,†said Mukyala.
The last memorable task, three weeks before Mommy Jackie died, would vividly bring out her devotion towards the children.
“She went to the United States along with an injured infant called Billy,†William Edima, a driver of the Welcome Home van narrates.
Billy, now aged eight months, could have been burnt with hot water or acid by his mother. His mother had abandoned him by the roadside with wounds all over his face, when he was only a month old.
Mommy Jackie had taken custody of Billy when a probation officer in Mukono called on her,†Edima narrates.
When she was leaving for the US, she said: “I am leaving for the States to seek for a hospital that can offer Billy special medical attention. Billy requires plastic surgery. I desperately want the deformed facial features to be fixed before he is of age. “Take care of my children at home. I will be back soon.â€
Those were her last words to Edima, who drove her to the airport. Little did she know that nature had other plans for her.
Mommy Jackie often brought home infants with huge staring eyes and painfully thin bodies.
Usually the new infants were quiet, because they were always starved and ill. Mommy Jackie was always optimistic, recalls Afuwa Tibigwa, who worked as a caretaker at the home for five years.
“She would cuddle the infant and would fondly say: I know you are going to be all right,†says Tibigwa.
Sometimes death would defy her spirited efforts to save the life of an infant. Then she would torture herself with a series of “I wish I had known the plight of this child before, it would have survived.â€
The fallen infants were usually buried at the Welcome Home cemetery, at Mailo Mbili, in Jinja municipality.
At the end of a number of burials, she would say: “When I die, I want to be buried here with my children.†Indeed the board of donors and her family honoured her wish. When she died, her body was cremated and the ashes were flown to Uganda and buried at Mailo Mbili.
At the home, she would shout out in anger to lazy caretakers who neglected a crying baby. But her outburst was never misplaced, recalls Mukyala.
She was born in 1948, in California, USA. She was a graduate of Molody School of theology in California. Mommy Jackie became a born again Christian in 1973, says Bill Henning her foster parent.
She first set up an orphanage in Bija California, USA. “Her first orphanage was sheltered under a tent. Leaving in the orphanage throughout her childhood drove her to have compassion for neglected children.
However, in 1990 she moved to Africa, on learning that children in Uganda and Rwanda were dying because there was nobody to take care of them, the endless wars and the HIV/AIDS pandemic,†says Henning.
In 1993, she established an orphanage in Kenya “But the woeful needy orphans in Rwanda touched her heart more,†he adds.
However, she did not stay long in Rwanda due to insecurity there. “While there, she was robbed twice and badly beaten,†Says Henning.
However, she did not lose faith in her dream of caring for abandoned children.
In 1995, she came to Uganda, and made it her home. She never looked back until the time of her death.
However, donors in USA who have been funding the home are committed to take over Mommy Jackie’s work.