By Kirsty McLullich | Project Leader
Last month saw the St Andrews Baby Unit hit its capacity of fifteen babies with the arrival of Priscillah – a one month old little girl whose mother has been unable to take care of her since she was born. Priscillah is a very healthy little girl and has been doing well since she arrived to occupy the last available cot. Little Emmanuel, who was mentioned in the last project report, has also shown great improvement in recent weeks and is becoming much more alert and gaining weight. When I visited last weekend, his mother had passed by to spend some time with him – she is currently in secondary school but will resume his care when she finishes school next November.
A small group of the older toddlers have taken the big step and are now attending school each day during the week. Vision Africa set up and supports an ECD (Early Childhood Development) centre within the same compound as the baby unit so the little ones are able to attend the baby class each day but still go “home” for lunch. They are really coming on a treat under the care of the teachers and are starting to learn new songs and develop their language skills.
Another great piece of news is that progress is being made on the first adoption of one of the children from the St. Andrews Baby Unit. A family from the local community is working with the authorities to apply to foster a little boy with a view to eventually adopting him...this is the standard process in Kenya. For babies or infants who have no family to which they can be restored, adoption is the best outcome we can hope for. We look forward to seeing how this first one goes and hope that more local families come forward to adopt some of the other children who have no hope of being restored to their family.
Once again, we would like to thank everyone who has supported this project through GlobalGiving. With fifteen babies to care for, your donations are vital to help us buy food, toiletries and everything else babies require. We truly appreciate all that you have done.
Wednesday June 15th is BONUS DAY on GlobalGiving. Every donation received by this project will be matched at 30% by our dear friends at GlobalGiving. Please spread the word to your friends, family and co-workers and help us make the most of this very generous offer.
Together we can create brighter futures!
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