Saving Babies in remote Western Uganda

In our first report we shared details of a new arrival Baby Alvin, born in April 2025, and admitted to NOTDEC for care following the death of his mother, due to a serious haemmorrhage following his birth. There were no extended family available to care for him.

When he arrived he was 2.5kg, now he's a healthy 16month old weighing 11kg.

The housemother reports:

• This child is growing well, has never been admitted for any sickness and is strong. He can now walk, play well with others, has good appetite for food cooked and drinks as well

Alvin is just one of 14 babies currently receiving support under the NOTDEC Save Life Programme. This programme provides:

Nutrition milk (Nana or cow and gate) for a maximum period of 6 months to the children

We also continue supporting these children after 6 months with nutrition foodstuff (soya,millet, maize flour) for a period of more 24 months until such a time when the child would be weaned from breast milk.

Currently, we have 16 children on save life program, 7 (0-6 months, 9 (7-12 months)

a) A child of 0-6 months consumes 12 tins of nutrition milk (Nana or cow and gate) per month on condition that the baby is healthy and growing normally.

b) A child of 7months and over consumes 15kgs of mixed flours of Millet, soya and maize per month depending on their needs

c) These children are always susceptible to diarrhoea and on average 3 children/month get sick and require treatment

d) To ensure proper care of the babies from the community, Notdec ensures that the caregivers are trained on proper care of the infants and the institution conducts routine monitoring of the caregivers through the social workers

The annual cost for this provision is approximately:

15,000 US$  or £11,000 for the items listed under (a-c)

There are significant additional costs involved in maintaining contact with families in the community with our social work team.

Once these costs are taken into account the real costs to NOTDEC are:  17,000 US$ or £12,500 per year, or 1400 US$/month or £1040/month

PLEASE SUPPORT US IN ANY WAY YOU CAN