Baby Watoto Newsletter, August 2011
Recently we have seen an increase in the number of babies at the three homes in Uganda. By August, there were 199 little ones in our care. This means caregivers have been stretched with many little mouths to feed and cuddles to give. Volunteers help make it possible to continue accepting these little ones while maintaining a high quality of baby care. We want to introduce some of our recent volunteers.
Sarah, USA
After hearing about Watoto, Sarah knew God wanted her here. “Even if I just got to scrub the floors, I wanted to be a part of this ministry,” she says. Sarah mainly helped out in the nursery with the newborns.
“Often the babies are between 9 and 15 in number. It takes a lot of team work, a lot of formula and a heap of diapers,” she says.
Since being at Baby Watoto, her heart has been captured by Baby T who arrived with both emotional and physical scars. One of her favourite memories was when Baby T first arrived. He was so fearful and kept crying ‘mama’, which broke Sarah’s heart. After playing with him for a while, he crawled into her lap and settled for most of the day. “He fell asleep with his arms wrapped around me… And later slept sweetly on his bed,” she says.
Lisa, USA
Lisa first heard about Watoto in 2002 when the Watoto Children’s Choir visited her town. She began sponsoring a child and later visited twice on build teams. In 2011, she came back as an individual volunteer, putting her experience with disabled children into use by helping with our special needs toddlers.
After photographing and cuddling cute babies, Lisa soon realised, “Every diaper I change and every load of laundry that I fold, lightens the load for the nannies and gives them more time with the babies.” The attachment a baby develops with their nanny is critical for the functional development of that baby. Our volunteers are a key component to every baby’s wellbeing.
Lisa’s favourite moment was while sitting with one of the children on her lap. “His arms were wrapped around my neck as we listened to a worship CD. This sweet boy cannot walk or talk, but there was a connection between us. It was a special moment, with this child and with God,” she says.
