Faith

Birthday

History

On 02 June 2010, a woman took notice of a young mother and her approximately 2 months old baby on our beach.  The mother was sitting on the baby, and it looked like she was planning to asphyxiate it. The woman took the baby from the mother and brought both to the Youth Welfare Office.

At the Youth Welfare Office the mother told that she got involved with a married man. The man is HIV positive, what she did not know first, and left her once she got pregnant. Later at the police she confirmed that she wanted to kill the baby and herself. After the birth she had learned that she is HIV positive as well. She was told that she cannot breastfeed the baby, got tablets and was registered. There was no further advice. In addition, the father of the baby who initially said that he would take care of her is now not interested in the baby anymore, and she lost her head.

The baby, a little girl we name Faith, was brought to us on the same day. She was dirty, hungry and underfed. The mother is since then in therapy.

Relatives of the mother and the father refuse taking the child, and we have initiated an HIV test. However, we will only get the result in approximately 4 weeks time. If Faith should be HIV positive, she cannot stay with us and will be transferred to Mombasa, since in Kenya HIV positive children cannot be accommodated together with HIV negative ones. We can only wait and seen and hope that Faith is HIV negative.

Career

September 2010: After Faith was developing very well in the past weeks we dared to hope for it. However, the confirmation in terms of lab results was only received now: She is HIV negative and can stay with us.

November 2010: Faith is a lively and happy baby, smiling at everyone. She already tries to stand up alone, but crawling does not work yet.