Abandoned babies find love away from home

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Members,

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Kenyan community based forum has a networking of over 60 members and

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Chifu

The website is http://www.newlifehometrust.org/babystats.asp

Abandoned babies find love away from home

By Rashida Nakabuga

A toddler attempts to walk towards us but falls almost immediately.

Sandy Harper, one of the volunteer nurses feeds baby Zawadi at New

Life Home in Kisumu.

He looks up hopefully for someone to pick him up but before we reach

him, he is up on his feet again.

Jerome Mauno, who is turning one in August, has escaped from the

hostels to the office block.

Our host, Lucy Okutoyi, leads us to her office. Mauno staggers after

us into the office.

He goes straight to the computer table and starts playing with the

mouse. The phone rings and he goes for it smiling but Lucy picks it

first.

Mauno is one of the 50 abandoned babies who have found a new home

and love at the New Life Home Trust in Kisumu.

Several babies crawl on the veranda. They seem to prefer the veranda

to a shed built for them outside the hostel.

In the hostel, small babies lie in wooden cribs. As we approach the

beds they smile sweetly looking in anticipation. But some cry as

they see so many strangers.

Most of the babies are healthy but others are emaciated.

The home has hired several nannies to look after the babies. The

women soothe the babies to stop crying.

Millicent Akello, one of the nannies, says she loves her job but it

is challenging.

" For a baby to grow well, it needs the care and love of its mother.

These abandoned babies look for love from sympathisers, " she says.

" Most of them are brought here malnourished and feel unwanted. It

takes time for them to adjust, " she says.

Akello says when a baby is first brought to the home, they cry a

lot. They take up to one week to get used to the workers.

Western Stars Development Women Group donated things worth more than

Sh10,000 to the home.

The organising secretary of the group, Khavayi, said they do

this every year to support children.

" It is the responsibility of we mothers to take care of children, it

is absurd for some mothers to abandon their own children, " she said.

She appealed to other women to assist the children because some of

them were orphans. She urged mothers to support young girls who

conceive. Khavayi said the number of abandoned babies had increased

because young girls have nobody to support them.

The administrator, Ondech, said some of the babies were

abandoned in hospital, district child office, police stations or by

the road side.

" Sometimes we are alerted by the crying of a baby outside the gate.

The number is rising everyday. We sometimes receive one-day-old

babies, " he said.

Ondech said the home, which was started in 2000, has had 253 babies.

Some have been adopted or transferred to other homes.

He said the gates of the home are open to those who want to adopt

babies. Khavayi said some of the babies have HIV/Aids.

" Most of the babies are infected with the HIV virus. Their parents

probably neglected them because they did not know how to handle

them, " said Ondech.

Ondech said they have put the infected babies on ARVs and feed them

on a special diet, which has improved their lives.

" Babies test positive but after this treatment they turn negative, "

he said.

He advised mothers to treat the babies the same way instead of

abandoning them.

Ondech said the home was a charitable organisation and appealed to

well wishers to assist them. A Christian couple, Clive and

Beckenham of New Life Home Trust opened the first home in Nairobi in

1994.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=22554

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