The Hampshire mum on a mission to find Africa's abandoned children a loving home

It’s eerily silent: He doesn’t cry, squeal or gargle like other babies his age. Instead his big brown eyes stare vacantly ahead.

But little Saul isn’t like most babies.

At just three months, he was dropped down a pit latrine, abandoned and left for dead, surrounded by filth and maggots.

And it is Sue Allan, the former head of children’s social care in Southampton who is bringing hope to Uganda’s abandoned babies.

She left her life in the UK to bring hope to the lives of the hundreds of abandoned babies like Saul in the capital Kampala, which is plagued by poverty, disease and domestic violence.

Sue manages the Malaika Babies Home run by the Child’s i Foundation, which temporarily homes babies abandoned everywhere from hospitals and car parks to roadside ditches and pit latrines.

The social work team then find loving foster homes for the babies.

DESPERATE: Baby Saul who was dumped in a pit latrine. Photo by Georgia Darlow.

She said: “You look at these babies and think how could someone have done this?

“But it’s out of sheer desperation.

“There is a massive problem with child abandonment in Uganda because there is no welfare state at all and there are some horrifying scenarios.

“If a wife or a teenage mother is thrown out they are destitute, with nowhere to go and no way of looking after the baby so they feel compelled to abandon their babies. Normally they leave them somewhere they can be found, it is the only way they feel the babies have a chance of survival but sometimes these babies are left for dead.”

Thanks to Sue’s team, the abandoned babies no longer face uncertain futures- even though it’s clear the malnourished babies begin their lives in the worst possible way.

“It breaks your heart”, Sue said.

“The babies that had been thrown into the bottom of a pit latrine were in the most pitiful state. If the baby lands face down, it’s dead. If it lands face up, it might cry and be rescued but there are usually concrete slabs around the hole which require pick axes and hammers to break them with the baby underneath.

“They always have to go into hospital before coming to us.

“When they arrive they are very dark and confused. They’ve been abandoned so they are very silent. They rarely cry.

“You realise how close they were to not making it.

“No child deserves that.”

Picture by Steve Greenaway, stevegreenaway.com

The Child’s i Foundation was set up by former Big Brother TV producer Lucy Buck.

The home took in its first two babies born to 13-year-old victims of incest in April 2010.

But different to the thousands of Ugandan orphanages, the foundation works to resettle the babies into a loving home with either their extended families or into adoption or fostering a concept which is unusual for the African country.

Sue explained if her workers cannot trace the baby’s extended family or they are not willing to take the baby in, they find a Ugandan family to foster the child rather than the children going to international adoption agencies.

HOPE: Children's lives are transformed thanks to the organisation. Picture by: Steve Greenaway, stevegreenawa.com

It’s hoped that the 25-bed home will soon become a place for the medical screening of babies before they are placed immediately into foster homes.

Sue, who is now back in her Highfield home after 17 months in Uganda, said: “To find a baby a home is just wonderful. If we weren’t placing children back into families they would spend their lives in institutions, which is always very harmful to children.

“We’ve gone from a position where people said Ugandans will not adopt, to a position where we have done 36 adoptions in three years with families on a waiting list, so that’s remarkable. Ugandans adopt for all the reasons British people adopt.”

Sue, who specialised in child protection, children in care, fostering and adoption, went to Uganda to transfer her social work skills and appoint key management posts within the organisation.

She has worked closely with the Ugandan government and has taken part in conferences and conventions to raise awareness of the care model.

And although she was surprised to find many of her social work skills- from assessing families to child protection issues- were transferable in Africa, it has been far from easy in the packed dusty red streets of Kampala.

Picture by Sarah Bernabe.

Sue said she was shocked by the vulnerability of people she met and even found herself the victim of several robberies.

However the 59-year-old mum-of-three said her overwhelming pride of her team and seeing just how far the babies progress in a short time was the most amazing experience.

HAPPY AT LAST: An abandoned baby reunited with her great grandmother. Picture by Steve Greenaway, stevegreenaway.com

Sue described homing a little girl with her great grandmother, pictured left, as well as the joy on a three-year-old’s face when she found the perfect home for him with a family of ten.

Talking about the visit to his new family home, she said: “He lay with his head in his new mother’s knee with her stroking his head.

He looked so content. It couldn’t have been more perfect and I could barely get through the visit without crying. I just thought if that’s all I had done in that year, that would have been more than enough to justify all the fear and insecurity I felt. You see that sort of story being replicated all the time.

“When babies come in they are extremely malnourished with tiny little limbs, many have TB, malaria, they’re HIV positive.

“But you know in as little as four months their lives will be turned around and they will be strapping bruising babies going into a loving family. It’s amazing.”

Back in England, Sue is still supervising the home and makes regular Skype calls to ensure everything is running smoothly before a return visit in September.

VITAL WORK: Sue pictured with the babies in Kampala. 

However Sue stressed donations are vital.

She said: “None of this amazing work could happen without donations. The money you give just goes to the babies and it goes a very long way. A small donation can really make an enormous difference.”

To donate and for more information go to childsifoundation.org

A SOUTHAMPTON church will launch a £10,000 fundraising bid for the Child’s i Foundation.

Everyone is invited along to St James Methodist Church in Shirley for its first event this Saturday from 2.30pm.

There will be a bring and buy sale, cakes, crafts, refreshments, fun and games.

For information call 023 8051 0309