SANTA YNEZ, CA — Together with Faith of a Child Foundation, Damali Mirembe, the director of the Sonrise Baby Home, recently started construction on a new hospital to serve the Kayunga District of Uganda. The new hospital will include a maternity ward, a pediatric ward, a fully equipped laboratory, emergency care and several in-patient beds.
In an online video, Damali shared her vision for the hospital and explained why she is starting this ambitious project.
In 2009, Damali was a young university graduate in Uganda. As an orphan, she had been raised by American Christian missionaries and despite great opportunities in the business world, she chose to begin taking in orphaned babies. Immediately, Damali was overwhelmed with the number of abandoned and malnourished babies in Uganda. She grew her ministry and soon had 36 babies in a small two-bedroom house.
More recently, Damali has grown the Sonrise Baby Home to include six large clean buildings, and a farm to feed the babies and her staff. They have saved more than 450 babies from severe malnutrition, typhoid, malaria, and other deadly diseases. Together with the “aunties” in the Baby Home, Damali heals the babies with a combination of love, good nutrition, medical interventions, as well as prayer. More than 85% of the children are reunited with family members after reaching a stable health condition.
One case in point is Gabi, a baby that was brought to the Sonrise Baby Home in 2019 after she was abandoned, naked in a bush. She was so sick that she was unable to cry aloud. But after four months, Gabi was a chubby and healthy baby. Today, she is starting school and she loves to chase a soccer ball (a football in Uganda).
During COVID, all transportation was closed down in Uganda. Damali heard stories about mothers that could not find any transportation to hospitals, which often can be more than 100 km away. Some poor mothers were forced to try to walk for help, collapsing and dying on the way. Damali determined that she must build a new hospital in the rural Kayunga District, to offer better maternity care.
“There were so many babies abandoned because their mothers died during childbirth, and I felt called by God to work on the cause of this problem: the poor healthcare for women in Uganda” commented Damali Mirembe. “We have started this important project so that nobody needs to build another orphanage to care for motherless babies.”
To raise funds for the hospital project, Sonrise Baby Home is teaming up with Faith of a Child Foundation in the United States. Information about the hospital project can be found at www.faithofachildfoundation.org/hospital-project. The concrete floor and foundation for the hospital has just been completed, and Faith is working to raise $150,000 to build the walls and the 2nd story.
Faith of a Child Foundation will be matching all donations made to the Hospital Project, so that every dollar donated will result in two dollars of concrete and labor in Uganda. Contact Mobile Experts for more details.
Read more news on Children’s Ministry and Humanitarian Services on Missions Box.
Contact: Joe Madden, Faith of a Child Foundation, 376919@email4pr.com, +1 (408) 335-4042, www.faithofachildfoundation.org
Sources: PR Newswire, Damali Starts Construction on a Hospital in Uganda