Aggie's Baby Home

March 2011 – Update:  Raised $1,000 for outdoor playground equipment – outstanding!!

February 2011:  Recently, a family that is adopting from Aggie’s Baby Home ran a fund-raiser at their child’s pre-k class.  Amazingly, the whole class jumped on-board and they collected over 75 pounds of baby formula, some diapers and $300 cash to go towards one of next big projects at ABH- a much needed children’s outdoor play area.  Their goal is to raise at least another $700!   It will all be delivered when the family adopting from ABH, travel to Uganda to finalize their adoption and bring home their precious new addition.

A giant thank you goes out to the children in this special Pre-K class!  And, praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ  for His faithfulness.  It is pure joy to serve Him together with you!!

Dear Friends,
The New Year at ABH will be like Christmas for the babies, with many of the items that have been generously donated recently, being hand-delivered to the baby home by Paula and Richard M.. Featured below are just a few of the blessings about which, together, we can all rejoice! There is always more work to be done and grace to accomplish it; but please know that we could NOT have done it without you, your generous support and your prayers.
Gratefully yours,
Torchgrab Ministries and Aggie’s Baby Home

A new friend of ABH wanted to get involved and decided to do a diaper drive to help us with one of our biggest needs at the baby home – DIAPERS! After contacting several cloth diaper companies, enough diapers have been donated to keep our babies dry and happy for years to come! A special thank you to Gen-Y Diapers (www.gen-ydiapers.com) and Nicki’s Diapers (www.nickisdiapers.com)!
If you would like to donate a diaper to Aggie’s Baby Home go to: http://gen-ydiapers.com/shop/outlet/diaperdrive/#30

Everyone knows that cleaning cloth diapers is a big chore. Thanks to Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper and Laundry Detergent Company, Aggie’s Baby Home now has just the right product to help them with this task. Hundreds of pounds were donated and are on their way to ABH! Bio-degradable and eco-friendly, these naturally scented detergents will keep the new cloth diapers and diaper shells in ship-shape. Thanks Rockin’ Green! (www.rockingreensoap.com)

Another big thank-you to our new friends and partner – Family by Faith Ministries of Georgia (www.familybyfaith.org) for their generous donation of $1,000 and commitment for on-going support. As we increase in the number or babies we save – our budget grows too and we are grateful for this new friend.

Aggie’s Baby Home is an AWARD recipient of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ’s (Colorado Springs, CO) Missions Giving and Outreach Award/Gift of 2010-11! Thank YOU! As we are still in the building phase; we hope to add a laundry room, out-door play area and a guest-house soon…thanks to FCC we are one step closer our next big project.

During 2010, several adoptive families and their friends visited the baby home. They painted the fence, cleaned and helped our “mothers” by spending time playing, caring for and loving the babies. Thank you!

The need for babies and toddlers to be rescued is so great in Uganda, that we began giving some of them a new home before the actual physical buildings at the baby home were complete. We still have many more plans that need to be completed including a laundry facility, guest-house, outside playground area and equipment and inside flooring.
We are extremely grateful for EVERY gift donated to Aggie’s Baby Home – large and small! Since returning home from the United States, Agnes Lubega – Director of ABH, has purchased many items with the generous funds donated during several fund-raisers held in Colorado. Among some of the items purchased were: a kitchen table and eight chairs for the workers to sit on/at (Yes, they were sitting on the floor prior to this.). A large, colorrful area rug was rolled out with joy in the “toy room” (the children don’t have to sit on the cold, concrete floor any more) and two large filing cabinets were purchased to keep the children’s files neat and orderly in preparation of their eventual adoption.

Perhaps the most important announcement is that funds for both the electricity and a perimeter safety fence have also been donated and these projects will soon be underway. Imagine not having lights or a refrigerator in your home? While it is true that the baby home is located next to the New Hope Orphanage and School, it is not within it’s security fence and the nearby neighborhood is not exactly paradise.

So to all our friends, new and those who have been with us since the beginning – THANK YOU! Please remember, no gift is too small.

The baby home has 18 more empty cribs but without more monthly support ($50/mo), we will have to turn away additional babies who desperately need a safe and loving family and home. Please join us in prayer and financial support of this very special home for those dearest to the Lord’s heart.

Imagine one of our rescued babies crying in the middle of the night, afraid of the dark because they were abandoned, hungry and saw unimaginable acts in the darkness of night. Well, that’s exact the scene at Aggie’s Baby Home with several of our precious children. We are thrilled to announce that Nokero – Lights for Life (www.Nokero.com) donated 10 of The World’s Only Solar Light Bulb (TM) to Agnes Lubega after visiting the corporate headquarters located in Denver, CO.

Aggie’s Baby Home currently operates WITHOUT electricity. (It is scheduled to be installed soon, but will still be intermittent at times.) Because we currently use dangerous kerosene lanterns to care for our babies at night, we are thrilled with this dependable alternative.

Nokero lights are made from impact-resistant plastic, four solar panels, a replaceable rechargeable battery and five light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It is about the size of a standard light bulb and can withstand tough outdoor conditions. Aggie’s baby home staff will be hanging the special bulbs out-of-doors in direct sunlight each day. At night, each bulb will be brought inside and hung on the safety hook in a safe but needed location inside the baby home. The bulbs will emit light for up to four hours when fully charged. The also have on/off buttons so the battery can hold the charge until needed again in the night.

With this new affordable, solar light bulb, Nokero hopes to change the destiny of millions if not billions of people around the earth and reduce carbon dioxide (Fuel lanterns emit 190 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, equivalent to 30 million cars.)

With our new friends at Nokero, we hope to be able to soon share with the world how these bulbs have helped improve care at ABH. We will be sharing with Nokero how the bulbs have impacted ABH and the quality of care given there while Nokero may in-turn use our story, pictures, and examples in the media in the near future. Watch out CNN – we’ve got our own amazing God-sized story to tell as well! A giant thank you to Nokero.

A huge thank you to all the gracious and giving folks that attended the “Grand Opening Celebration and Baby Shower” for Aggie’s Baby Home – in Colorado Springs last night, August 31, 2010.

Last year, dozens of hand-made PRAYER blankets and other items were sent to ABH.  Once again, these compassionate friends send their love to the children of Africa:  Agnes will be going home with more beautiful hand-made scarves  as well as new and used clothing for the kids at New Hope  and ABH.  Of course much needed diapers and formula were also generously donated!

After discussing how the baby home does not currently have some basic furnishings such as a carpeting in the toy room, a kitchen table and chairs, adult chairs or lamps, the money raised at this event will be used to purchase these items.  It is our sincere desire to bless the hard working full-time (24/7) mother/workers with a place to sit and relax while caring for the children at ABH.

Thank you!

Thank you to the many new and old friends of Aggie’s Baby Home that came to our special “Baby Shower and Grand-Opening”  event held last Friday, August 27th in Centennial, Colorado.  Over 20 cans of much needed baby formula, dozens and dozens of cloth diapers, rubber pants, and new clothing were all generously donated.  Another friend brought used prescription sun and regular glasses for those in need at ABH or New Hope Orphanage as well as other various items – all of which are much appreciated.

In addition to these amazing donations, close to $1400 in one-time donations was raised.  This money will go towards our general fund that is primarily used finish the building projects and furnishing of ABH or where needed.  We also had several MUCH NEEDED new monthly pledges towards our GOAL  of $3,000 (full-house goal for 25 babies/staff).

It was another “God-thing” to witness what the Lord did that night on behalf of the least of these. Our humble thanks to everyone!

As of July of 2010- we have four babies safe and sound living at Aggie’s Baby Home!  Carol, Richard, Bruce and Suzan!  Each one with a tragic story of how they came to us, but each one created by an awesome God that has a plan for their lives.

On Saturday, May 15th, 2010 Baby Carol became the first official child to move into the new baby orphanage called Aggie’s Baby Home located in Kampala, Uganda.  Baby Carol was abandoned by her alcoholic mother.  Since last year she has been raised by her alcoholic father.  Often neglected and left alone to fend for herself in a locked room, Carol’s health was failing. Authorities stepped in and now baby Carol is receiving the love and care she needs.  Pray for wisdom and love to reign over Aggie’s Baby Home as they care for the orphans of Uganda.

The picture of the boy in the red shirt is Derrick.  He is the young man that Paula wrote about that she found in the city dump and took back to the orphanage.  He looks so happy even in the crowed schoolroom along with the other beautiful children.  Remember, all those smiling faces are orphans.  Unbelievable!