On Saturday April 11, 2009 a baby girl was found dumped at our gate. We believe the child was abandoned at our residence because we serve the community as a home for orphaned and vulnerable children in Entebbe.

This little girl was weak, sad, scared, and in extremely poor health from what appears to be malnutrition. Our first estimate on her age was 9 or 10 months; however, she was the size of a 3 month old.

After months and months of searching for parents, relatives, or anyone who could identify this child through the local leaders, police, and other government officials, eventually we gave up. Therefore, as is the case with many of the children at Malayaka House, where absolutely not a shred of evidence or information is known, we began the long slow recovery and re-building process. First a name – this one had Hannah Banana written all over her.

Hannah latched on quickly to the endless love and affection showered on her. She began consuming food like it was air, eating anything and everything in sight. And to this day she has an appetite like no other, and her love of ice cream and cake is insatiable! Usually the kids, however traumatized, respond well in our environment – to our wonderful Aunties, and to the affection of the other children. It is easy for them to feel comfortable and as part of the family. The difficult part, for most of them, is to complain. They do not cry, they do not fuss, and they will never demand anything from anyone. This was the case for Hannah as well, but she was quicker than most to recover. It took her exactly 3 months before she started making serious noise, fighting back, crying when someone put her down, announcing her frustration and disappointment, and demanding the attention every child deserves. Once Hannah surpassed this milestone, her progress and growth exploded.

She enjoys books and stories and is exceedingly smart. Hannah is bright, cheerful, and she has a magical personality. She is a good listener and is respectful to the Aunties. She is very independent, confident, and interacts well with all the children and adults. We were happy for her to start her education because she was more than ready. She already knew every baby school song, the alphabet and numbers, she could swim, dance, color, climb, and run like a champion.

Hannah’s academic journey began in Nursery and she is off to a glorious start. Naturally, she has many friends and is loved by all her teachers. Along with her siblings she studied Nursery at Entebbe Junior School, where she graduated in November 2014. 2015 brought her first steps into Primary, and together with other of her siblings she goes off to a wonderful school, Pearl of Africa, where she has a lot of friends and studies hard.

We love you, Hannah!