This afternoon I pointed the Flip camera at myself and I have tried to answer this incredibly important question

I know we keep going on (an on…) about how important your questions and feedback are but it truly is. This charity relies on your interaction ( the ‘i’ is in our name) so if you have any questions please let us know and we will do our best to answer them…

Lucyx

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CiF Team

Building a ‘Home’ isn’t in line with today’s modern thinking on social or child welfare, but as I’ve said on numerous occasions, we are not building an orphanage – ours will be a place of safety and care that ultimately aims to place children back into families. I think it has really helped that Brian is out here now, witnessing first-hand the need for the Foundation. After 4 years of me talking (and talking, and talking) about it, he – and all our supporters – can really see for themselves just how much we can do to create change here.

Meanwhile, our plan is really beginning to take shape and I’m so excited that, as well as building a centre that will provide the best possible care and set up a social work department to find families for every one of our children, we are now also committing to tackle the root cause of abandonment. We’ll be working with the mothers to try and support them, so they don’t feel that abandoning their baby is their only course of action.

Today, we visited Waakisa Ministries, who provide care for pregnant teenage girls. The project really gave me hope – they have set up in just two years, and we could see that it’s very well run and making such a huge difference. I think when you come across projects that truly work, it’s very good to learn from them, so I would really like to keep in touch with Damilie and her team to share our experiences – and get as much of their advice as we can!

Tomorrow is a big day for us, as we are visiting Mulago hospital. 64 babies are abandoned there every year and we hope to work with Mulago and Home Start International in the future – so wish us luck!

When, last September, Lucy first told me about her ideas and asked me to be her Social Work Adviser I was, to be honest, rather sceptical. In my  long career  in Child Welfare, including work in Africa, I had learned to be very cautious about people with bright ideas and extremely doubtful about orphanages of any description. I remember writing some stern words of warning about her plans and rather hoped she would go away.

In the event, and being Lucy, she persisted and persuaded me to listen to what she had learned in Uganda over the last four years. Since then we have innumerable conversations and some arguments, about what might work best in Kampala and, most importantly for me, be consistent with modern social work principles and practice.

It has proved to be an intriguing but productive journey – the child care expert meeting the pioneering visionary, so to speak. And now here in Uganda we have had a chance to actually test out our ideas in practice by looking at a whole range of services, good and not so good, here on the ground and, above all, to talk with Ugandan families and professionals about what they want to happen to give families and children “at risk” a better chance.

I now believe that there is definitely a place for a relatively small – perhaps a 20 place – specialist transitional home or centre for babies and toddlers who have been abandoned in Kampala. The emphasis needs to be on top-quality care coupled with a total commitment to find families for these children as soon as possible.

But in addition to this I have always felt that more is needed and we now both see this in terms of some preventative services designed to offer help and support to mothers at the end of their tethers. I think that Home-Start Uganda could provide this for us at Mulago hospital. Later perhaps we might see a place for a day centre to support families in dire need.

Lucy and  are  very close now to an agreement about what Child’s i Foundation can  best do and I am feeling positively enthused about the difference the charity will  make  to the lives of  some extremely needy children  in Uganda.

What a journey – but what a worthwhile destination!

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Today we had the pleasure of meeting some incredible mothers who will do anything to keep their children but here life is a struggle. In Uganda there is no safety net or welfare state. If you can’t afford to eat you and your children starve. As a mother, when you are faced with abandoning your child for your child to live or keeping your beloved child and watching them die what decision do you make?

Incredible meeting with mothers

We all sat round in a circle and we felt honoured that they opened up to us and told us their heartbreaking stories. What stuck me was their vulnerability. There was a reoccurring story of men promising love and financial security and then ‘disappearing’ when they get pregnant leaving them with no money, no support and a young baby to feed and clothe.

There were many reasons why: the civil war in Northern Uganda, HIV/AIDS, men deceiving them and then ‘disappearing; children being born with disabilities and being seen as an evil omen, family rejecting them for having children our of wedlock or defilement. All of these factors lead to these vulnerable young women being faced with a decision no woman should ever have to make and I have utmost respect for them for keeping their babies against all the odds.

A young mother and her newborn baby

We asked them if they knew any mothers who had abandoned their children and I was not prepared for the answer. One mother had killed their newborn baby by throwing them down a pit latrine and another mother had repeatedly banged their tiny baby’s head against the bed. Two hundred babies are found and bought to homes but what about the babies who are killed or never found?

In our phasing we put tackling the root cause of abandonment in phase 5  but I think this is too late. These women need our help now and if we can help them maybe we could save babies from being abandoned or killed in the first place?

Tomorrow we are meeting Home Start International, an amazing organization which Brian helped set up which provides support for these mothers and I would like to investigate working in partnership with them to provide this service so as well as caring for babies in our home we are also working hard on prevention as well as rehabilitation.

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Meeting the British High Commissioner

In a really positive meeting, he congratulated us on what he described as our “culturally sensitive” approach of talking to the locals and people in the know about what we want to achieve in Uganda. A common problem here is organisations just transplanting western ideas, rather than listening to what the local people really need. And we would be making a mistake if we simply replicated another charity’s model – ultimately our aim is to set up a project that no one else is doing and is really going to make a difference to the lives of abandoned babies. I’m immensely proud of our team – we have achieved so much in a short space of time. My wingman, Brian, continues to ask exactly the right questions, and his contacts have managed to set up meetings with the great and the good here. His dedication and passion for this project never ceases to amaze me – I have utmost respect for his opinion, and we would not be where we are now without his invaluable advice. And our Saff has pulled off a miracle – after producing weekly video updates on Bebo’s The Gap Year she promised never to attempt to upload a video in Africa ever again (the slowness and unreliability of the connection make it one of the most time-consuming jobs ever) but now she is doing it every day! Last night was a real test of her patience – after waiting 3 hours to upload a video, she discovered it hadn’t worked and had to start all again. Ouch! But it’s up now, and we really hope you enjoy the videos. We feel they give a great insight into what we are trying to do, so all those hours Saff spends watching a timeline is worth it. We would love to know what you think of our videos and welcome any suggestions.

Counting down the minutes

Tomorrow we are giving ourselves a much-needed day off. Brian is a fishing fanatic and has been looking forward to a spot of angling on the Nile all week, while I can’t wait to spend some time with the kids at Sanyu. See you on Sunday, folks, and please do keep those questions coming.

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Our Child Psychology expert Dr Elizabeth Kilbey has backed this view, explaining on our FB group:

Children with no secure attachments in early life are overwhelmingly needy – they are desperately seeking an emotional connection. But this need can’t come from quick cuddles from every new person they meet – it has to be delivered over a long period of time to allow them the chance to develop secure relationships.’

We’ve also been asked tons of question, all of which we hope to answer. Today, supporter Katy Muncer asked us how we are going to find families for our children. Well, we had a productive meeting this morning with Families For Children, an organisation pioneering a foster care scheme in Uganda. We were very keen to partner up with them and you can watch the meeting for yourself here:

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGEkdk72GPU

One of our major objectives is to find out why babies are abandoned in the first place, so this afternoon, we visited Mulago, Uganda’s busiest hospital – and a place where desperate mothers abandon more than 60 babies a year.

We met their top paediatrician, Dr Atai, and social worker Faith Karamager. Faith, who deals with the babies on a day-to-day basis, told us story after sad story about how they come to be abandoned here. Almost all of the mothers are living in dire poverty, but all too often other devastating factors, such as rape, incest and domestic violence, have influenced their heartbreaking decision.

Meeting at Mulago hospital

Many of these mothers, who are often very young themselves, have been thrown out by their families because of the stigma associated with their pregnancies. With no other viable option open to them, they are forced to abandon their precious newborns somewhere they pray they will be safe. It’s a tragic story – made all the more terrible by how commonplace it is.Although this remarkable hospital works hard to look after the often ill and premature babies, the time comes all too soon when the babies need to be placed in orphanages – but often there are no vacancies or any suitable homes.

Dr Atai and Faith were incredibly supportive of our plans to offer alternative options, and were especially interested in services that might help children move into either their own extended families, or foster and adoptive families.

The meeting provided first-hand, compelling evidence – direct form the people who deal with the problem every day – of the need for Child’s i Foundation and what we are trying to achieve. They have invited us back to Mulago next week to visit the wards, so you will be able to see for yourselves the desperate plight of mothers and babies.

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I am feeling slightly overwhelmed but very happy to be back in Uganda.

We have had meetings all day, filmed and edited a video and uploaded it onto 21 different video platforms – woohoo, the internet connection worked.  It is nearly 9pm and I am seeing double and having trouble writing so apologies for my brevity.

I am shocked at how bad the situation is and the global economic recession is really affecting the most vulmerable and the homes are all over capacity and turning babies away.

I feel incredibly lucky to have such an amazing team around me and relieved you can watch our video of Day 1:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ycxGi8aXz8

Lara has organised all our logistics and is doing a brilliant job pre-empting all our needs, Saff did a great job today shooting and cutting our Day 1 video and hopefully from now on (with sleep) it will get easier.

Brian and I have spent all day meeting Barbara from Sanyu and Charles from Home Start International and it was amazing catching up with our team – Norah, Catherine and Dennis this evening but now it is time for sleep as we have another full on day tomorrow.

I’ll try to get tweeting more tomorrow.

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Check out our team t-shirts

We're giving love

Here is an overview of the first week of our trip:

Please keep in touch x

Link to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQD9Va_OOE

We plan to produce videos and updates daily. But that is easier said than done, as it could take up to 12 hours to upload a 3 minute video in Uganda! We only have 21 days and so much to do but we will try our best to make sure we update you with videos, blogs and photos. Wish us luck.

If all goes according to plan you’ll be able to watch our videos on: YouTube, Facebook, Daily Motion, Revver, Metacafe, Veoh, MySpace, Vimeo, Videojug, Seesmic, Vodpod and Blip (as well as our website of course).

But please don’t just watch us we want you to interact with us – post your comments, advice and questions on any of the video sites, our Facebook fan page or blog posts.

Join our FeedFriend or connect with us on Triiibes (if you are a member).

All the Tweeters out there if you do want to give us love – we’re @childsi and please use #childsiug so we can gather responses on our Squidoo lens.

Well, hopefully we have given you enough choice, you have no excuse. Please give us your opinion, give us advice, ask us questions.  We want you to join us on our journey.

Saffron - our Producer

Africa and I have a bit of a history, like Brian the continent never let go with me either. I first landed there back in ‘98 when I went on an overland trip through Uganda and Kenya in my university summer holiday. Since then I have been back several times and on Gap Year I travelled for 6 months filming through various parts of South, East, North and West Africa.  I am really chuffed to be using my skills to help this amazing project get off the ground.

In our three weeks in Uganda we really want to feel like you are there with us through the entire trip right from the moment we arrive in Uganda. This is going to be an important trip and we want YOU to be involved.

So for now it’s on to finalising our shooting schedule, checking through the kit, praying the internet in Uganda is up to it and packing the well travelled rucksack once more!

7 days to go!