We posted a photo up of Matty on Twitter a few weeks ago. He is one of our children who has recently been resettled with his family. But his story isn’t that simple.

Matty was rescued 5 months after he was “stolen” at just 1 day old.

We were alerted when his real mother bumped into the woman who took him and raised an alarm, both women were taken to a nearby Police Station and Matty was referred to us for temporary custody.

A DNA test was taken which confirmed the identity of Matty’s real mum. Our social worker Lenah then traced her to a local slum and the two were happily re-united.

After the re-unification with her son, Matty’s mum then unfortunately disappeared and both her phone numbers were unavailable.

The team at Malaika then decided to trace Matty’s father, using the phone numbers that his mum had given them. After walking for miles and showing village officials his photo, his dad was located.

On hearing about his son being alive, Matty’s dad made plans to travel to the city to see his son. He eventually travelled to Malaika Babies Home, despite a heavy downpour, where he had an emotional meeting with his son for the first time. With Matty’s mother gone, and with his father’s consent and support, a maternal uncle was identified as Matty’s primary care giver.

But before the bonding could commence, his Dad requested that Matty be granted a day visit with him.

After a number of visits and bonding sessions with his maternal uncle and family, Matty joined the family. He had been with us at Malaika for 12 months.

Tracing families is the difference between a child growing up in a family rather than an orphanage. We call it CSI Kampala – this is how we do it:

At our emergency care centre in Uganda, babies are often admitted to us by the police. They are dumped in pit latrines, on the roadsides and in rubbish bins in Kampala.

Our last two little baby girls were abandoned on a rubbish dump and a septic tank and weighted a pitiful 2kgs.

Our aim is to get them into loving families so their tragic beginning is never remembered. Our social work team trace family members. If we can’t find anyone then we have a waiting list of approved families who will provide them with love, a sense of belonging and be part of their family.