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SanyuS Norfolk church raises funds for Ugandan babies

Churches in the Bramerton benefice have supported a charity in Uganda for over 20 years that gives a home to orphaned babies. A remarkable moment occurred when a family visiting the popular sculpture trail in the village happened to include two children who had been rescued by the charity.


Back in 1997, the rector of Bergh Apton Church, Peter Knight was seeking a project that the village might support. The link with Sanyu Babies Home in Kampala was established with and funds were raised to purchase a new truck, vital for transporting the babies from where they are abandoned to the home. Twenty years on, in 2018, the village is once again fundraising for a truck - Sanyu Babies Home today needs a replacement for that truck’s replacement’s replacement!
 
Sanyu Babies Home was founded in 1929 by a missionary sister, Milnes Winifred Walker at Mengo Hospital in Kampala. She recognised the need on seeing so many babies, abandoned at the hospital. Since then the Home has developed on its own site in the grounds of Namirembe Cathedral, supported by private donations substantially from within Uganda, but also from UK and elsewhere. Today there is capacity for 50 children aged from only a few hours to four years.
 
The stories of the finding of the babies can be horrific – in cesspits, in plastic bags tied to a gate, dumped in a ditch, on the step of police stations.
Having been named, cared for, fed, and given some basic education, the babies are, by the age of four or five,  adopted, fostered, or returned to their families.
 

An amazing coincidence!

Bergh Apton in one of its Sculpture Trails was raising money for various causes including Sanyu. Information was displayed in Bergh Apton Church about the Home (and still is). A family visited the Trail; she American, he from Halesworth, their son and two adopted children. The latter two had been rescued and cared for at Sanyu Babies Home, before adoption. The Home keeps sibling together when it comes to adoption.
 
Christopher Meynell, from Bergh Apton church said, “Since 1997 many people have been so very generous – from within Uganda, the Bramerton group and further afield too. Not only have we funded the truck, but also re-roofed buildings to save on water costs by creating a rainwater collection system. Furthermore we send out monthly payments to provide for the costs of two resident nurses and the weekly visits of a doctor, who have not only improved the babies’ health, but have saved lives and reduced hospital costs.”
 
“One of the great things about this relationship is that we are able to manage donations and send them out to Uganda without horrific admin expenses. So what you donate contributes directly to the welfare of the babies.”
 
If you would like to make a donation towards a new truck, receive the Home’s newsletter by email or find out more about visiting Sanyu or volunteering please contact : Liz & Christopher Meynell on 01508 558440 or c.m.meynell@gmail.com 
 
Pictured above: Left: Director of Sanua Babies Home Joyce Lulindye director with Liz & Christopher Meynell from Bergh Apton
Right: the babies enjoying their Bible time.

 


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