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"Founded by the Church of Uganda, the Potter's Village is run by Christians on an inter-denominational basis"

Stories from the village

“Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them”
Matthew 19

Potter’s Village first baby!

In 2007 Sara was found abandoned in a field in pouring rain when she was only a few days old. She was brought to Jenny Green sunburned and with a dirty rag for a nappy. It is likely she had lain in the field undiscovered for some days. With the help of friends, Jenny fed and clothed her and a cot was improvised from a drawer in her bedroom. Sara became the first occupant of the Potters Village Child Crisis Centre.

Some days later her mother came forward, a 16 year old Rwandan who had become destitute following the discovery of her pregnancy (a typical situation for any unmarried mum). With no father or family to help, Sara’s mum could not support either herself or the baby and was forced to abandon her.

The mother is now working nearby, and Sara (pictured above carring a baby in a sling) is fostered by a local family. Jenny is frequently called on to care for some of the new little ones, if they arrive in need of intense nursing care.

How some little ones arrived at Potter's Village

Emmanuel lost his mum at birth and had no father. His grandparents were struggling to care for him and walked many miles to bring him to Potter’s village. He came very malnourished and underweight and needed a lot of care to save his life.
Potter’s village will care for him until his grandparents are able to look after him again.
Michael weighed only 2 pounds when he was born, and both his twin and his mother died at his birth. He was brought to Potter’s village by a visiting nurse who had been caring for him at a nearby hospital. He is known as a real fighter, who has come through many illnesses to become a strong little boy.

At 7 months, Baby Dan weighed only 4.5 kg. He was admitted to St Francis Hospital, Mutolere because of severe malnutrition The God of miracles touched him and he made a rapid progress. His nurse Marie says of him, “Only a month ago, he weighed 4.5 kg. Yesterday, at 8 months, he weighed 5.5 kg.” Marie reckons that this progress
is amazing for such a baby who had extended belly and red-tinged hair. Baby Dan was orphaned when he was just one month. His feeble and frail grandmother had to take him on and asked his elder sister to leave school and take care of the boy. Time came when the two inexperienced caretakers could no longer handle the situation. Through the efforts of Marie, the hospital referred him to Potter's Village. We welcome Baby D and we believe that he will find a wonderful home among other children.

Baby Dan had an extended abdomen when he arrived that is receded as he got better nutrition and care.

Lillian’s experience as a visitor to Potter’s Village in 2010

“I stayed at Potter’s Village for 4 weeks, and an experience it was! I am changing because of all I truly did see, hear, touch, taste and feel. On my second day two babies were admitted, and I began to see what burdens these little ones and their families are bearing. To lose a spouse and then in desperation have the strength to give your baby to strangers is humbling.

I was greeted at the village by little Dan yelling in happiness and throwing his arms around my leg. The baby-carers are delightful to watch…they snuggle crying children, pick up fallen children, feed hungry children and walk the energetic ones. Often this is done with little ones carried on their back. Doing things in their way, not necessarily mine, the children are still safe, happy and well cared for. If only all the children in the world had such a luxury.

To know that if Potter’s Village didn’t exist these 26 children would not be alive is humbling.”

Lillian also saw some of the ongoing building work: ”The making of a stone wall to secure the boundary was being done by men and women, breaking up the stone to level out a hill, carry the rocks on their heads, then build the wall, manually and with no large equipment. Can you imagine? Levelling a hill made of stone, by hand!”

The babies would be unlikely to survive without the care of this home. Here they are nurtured with one to one care in a Christian environment, and enabled to grow up into healthy happy individuals.

Swine flu. March 2010

It started with Jordan. He had diarrhoea and very high temperature. We did the logical thing: isolate him from the others. After a day of observation, he was alright so he joined the other children. One after another children went through a series of episodes of diarrhoea, vomiting, high temperatures, skin rash and viral pneumonia. We had to take some children to the medical facilities in town and hired temporary nurses to help the baby carers during the nights. The baby carers found themselves doing day and night shifts with hardly any minute of rest. The demand for more personnel was so critical that even the support staff joined the baby carers.

Bit by bit, we fought the epidemic over several weeks, and finally won through, delighting in not having lost any lives.

On Tuesday 13th April we had four children in the isolation room. Two of them, Joan and Collin, were not showing signs of recovery. In spite of that, in faith we declared that we had successfully fought the battle and could resume normal activities. Jenny baked cakes and bought soft drinks to celebrate the victory.

The need for a resident paediatric nurse to share the load of the expert nursing with Jenny is more apparent than ever before.

Baby Noel

This year the Potter’s Village received the best gift of all, a new baby over Christmas season! Noel’s story is tragic, but he has a bright future now that he is in the safety of Potter’s Village. Noel’s mother died in a domestic dispute. She was beaten by her brother-in-law and was taken to the hospital unconscious. Once there, she went into labour and delivered but sadly never regained consciousness and died shortly thereafter.
Noel’s father comes to visit him regularly, and is very grateful to Potter's Village for rescuing his son. Noel has an older sister who is 12 and she is now cooking for the family. The other children are two, four and eight. The two year old is struggling without his mother, but Potter’s Village is not able to help the two year old. Despite that, other family members are helping the young child.

Toddlers going back to their families:

December was a bitter sweet month in that two of our toddlers joined the community.
Hope went into a foster home where she is doing extremely well. Allan rejoined his family shortly before Christmas and is also doing well there. We are always happy to see our babies go home, yet we miss them terribly.