Baby Freecall



Freecall having malaria treatment

This is baby Freecall. She’s an orphan, her Dad died of Ebola and and her Mum died giving birth to her. She is around 9 months old but is the size of a 2 month old – she’s tiny.

She is being bought up by her aunt who is struggling to provide food for her. I recently put an appeal on facebook for financial help to provide formula for her and through the generosity of friends we are now able to get the food she needs. Unfortunately though, she was already malnourished and has recently been suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea and has lost the little bit of weight she had. Her Aunt bought her to see us last week and we took her to the Adventist hospital at Waterloo to be looked after by our great friend, Dr Koroma.

When the doctor saw her he admitted her straight away and diagnosed malnutrition and malaria - she was also starting to have convulsions and was very sick. She’s been at the hospital for almost a week and is has vastly improved since she’s been there. To start with she was very lethargic and hardly had the energy to cry…….now she is as bright as a button, very aware and hollers when she needs attention! She loves to be cuddled and doesn’t like to be put down. She is still having trouble keeping her food down and the doctor is investigating the cause of that.



Looking Brighter!

When I first met Freecall her aunt came to me to give her to me as she just couldn’t manage to provide for her. I can’t take her, I know virtually nothing about babies and I come and go to England regularly……it just wouldn’t be fair to her. Her aunt loves her and wants to take care of her and now that we are able to help with formula and her other needs she is happy to provide the maternal care that she needs.

Please, if you can, pray for this little one and send good thoughts and blessings her way – she’s had a tough start in life but with help we can give her a brighter future.

If you would like to give financially towards her medical bills please get in touch.

Visitors

I have a bit of company with me here in Sierra Leone at the moment - Jan and Nancy, who both sponsor students under the Transform Salone sponsorship scheme are spending three weeks helping me on our projects.

We have been really busy since we all arrived in Freetown together just over a week ago. We have been to the SDA hospital in Waterloo three times once to visit the doctor and the other two times to visit a baby we have admitted there for treatment for malnutrition and malaria. Today we also admitted a girl who had been bitten by a dog.

Most afternoons we are at the school I work out of and while I’m catching up on office or sponsorship work Jan and Nancy are helping the sponsored students with their reading or the times table.

This past Sunday we attended church at the Murray Town Army Barracks where my friend Colonel Kargbo, the Chief Chaplain of the Armed Services was preaching. In the evening we treated ourselves and went to The Hub restaurant.

It is lovely to have some company and both Nancy and Jan are a great encouragement and support to me. I so appreciate them and the help they are giving me and I hope this will be the first trip of many!

My Day

This was my day today:

• Hand washed my clothes in cold water……it seems someone has borrowed my washboard, so that job was harder than it needed to be
• Reminded my security to pump water from the well into the tanks that feed the house so there will be water in the taps for my guests arriving this weekend
• Walked to work escorted by one of my kids – this young man had a hernia operation a couple of weeks ago so we are spending the days together so I can keep an eye on him
• Made and shared the usual lunch of bread and luncheon meat for 20
• Put together most of the remaining information needed for the upcoming Transform Salone website
• Received a visit from the Granny of one of the sponsored students along with a gift of bananas and a cucumber. She looks upon me as her daughter and always, always brings me a little gift. She reminded me that her monthly bag of rice provided by her grandson’s sponsor is due soon
• Chatted with around 15 of the sponsored students, collecting information for the reports for their sponsors
• Gratefully accepted a lift home from my neighbour
• Ate porridge for tea
• Cheered along with the rest of the neighbourhood when the electricity came on, then rushed around like a loony putting everything on charge
• Sent my daily postcard to my husband (using the app STANNP – if you spend a lot of time away from home try it, it’s great!)

All that is left is to make a cup of camomile tea then head off to bed.

No sickness, death or drama – all in all not a bad day!

Reading Group - First Session

I and a group of six students held the first session of the new reading group today!

We are reading a book called Jack Pepper by the author Sarah Lean, it’s one of the books donated by my dear friend Nancy.

We covered the first two chapters today. The students took turns reading a page or two, then we’d discuss any new words, then reread the passages again before moving onto the next section.


This group is made up of students whose will be taking exams in the next year or two - they can read quite well, but just need practice reading aloud and some help with pronunciation and the meanings of more obscure words.


I really enjoyed the session and I think the students did too. They paid attention, asked lots of questions and took it seriously, I was very impressed by how interested they were and how they all helped each other when someone struggled over a word or pronunciation. I’m looking forward to the next session in a few days time.

Easy Fundraising!!

I've been introduced to a very easy way to raise some funds for Transform Salone - it's called easyfundraising and it's a portal for online shopping where registered retailers provide a donation to charity for online purchases (at no extra lost to the shopper!).

I'm asking everyone I know to do their online shopping through easyfundraising.org.uk using this link: http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/transformsalone to allow Transform Salone to receive donations from the retailers.

I signed up for it just one week ago and already over £50 has been donated to Transform Salone because of online purchases I've made - these purchases include: Ebay shopping, National Express coach bookings, changing home broadband provider and booking a hotel through Expedia.com. There are over 3000 vendors who are signed up with easyfundraising - every online purchase I've made in the last week has bought in a donation for Transform Salone.

There is no cost to sign up for this, and the items purchased cost the same as they would anyway - so you don't need to spend any more money. To sign up you just need to provide a name, email address and set a password

If you would like your organisation to also benefit from easyjustgiving please let me know and I'll send you a link you can use to register that will also earn even more donations for Transform Salone for the referral.

Please, please please - help to support Transform Salone by signing up today to easyfundraising using this link:

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/transformsalone/

Thank you!!