African Outreach - helping parents and babies
We really need your help to make a difference for the families and babies in highly deprived communities in Africa. In slum conditions that we can only begin to imagine, parents struggle for the most basic things. They also battle with a much higher incidence of mental health problems, substance and alchohol misuse, domestic abuse and HIV. Unfortunately, this places babies at high risk of not receiving the love and nurturing care that they really need to thrive.
Please click here to make a donation or to sponsor a
baby starter pack shipment
Babies need loving secure attachment relationships with a parent or carer to thrive and develop. Secure attachment has been shown to be imperative for babies' long-term physical and psychological wellbeing. This consistent love and nurturing is as vital as food and shelter. In the surroundings of the slums and orphanages in which we work this is very challenging indeed. We are therefore calling on enterprises and individuals with an interest in this incredible continent to help us with two humanitarian projects we are currently running.
Babies need loving secure attachment relationships with a parent or carer to thrive and develop. Secure attachment has been shown to be imperative for babies' long-term physical and psychological wellbeing. This consistent love and nurturing is as vital as food and shelter. In the surroundings of the slums and orphanages in which we work this is very challenging indeed. We are therefore calling on enterprises and individuals with an interest in this incredible continent to help us with two humanitarian projects we are currently running.
Both of these projects are a direct response to local need where the local community has asked for our help. We are committed to empowering local communities, working with other agencies and initiatives collaboratively, developing sustainable solutions and researching the efficacy and impact of what we do.
Project 1: Obunga Slum, Kisumu, Kenya - Mothers and Babies Project
What is the project?
We work directly with mothers and very young babies in very desperate circumstances in the Obunga slum, home to 20,000+ people. We visit 2-3 times a year and train local workers in simple and effective interventions that ensure sustainable change. Each visit costs around 2,500 GBP (we are not paid for this work).
What do we do?
We take our baby massage, music and attachment skills into the community working directly with parents and also training local health workers and orphanage workers in simple techniques. We educate parents and model the kind of loving care that babies need to thrive. We empower the local women to support each other in the positive care of their babies and older children. We help parents who are deeply affected by depression and trauma and find it very difficult to make a connection with their children and offer consistent loving care.
How can you help?
We work as unpaid volunteers but pay an appropriate wage to the local health and orphanage workers to ensure that the work continues after we leave. Projects are monitored to check they are making a real difference. We visit 2-3 times each year to run training and work directly in the slums. We would greatly appreciate your donations to help sustain this work. We also run modest profit-making Baby Massage & Music courses in the community in the Vale of Belvoir to provide a sustainable income stream.
Please click here to make a donation
Project 2: Baby Starter Pack Shipments - Ntabeni clinic, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa
What is the project?
This project gives severely under-privileged mothers of newborn babies on the lower south coast of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, a small pack of the most basic items needed for a newborn baby and advice about how to care for them. This project was developed in response to impoverished mothers leaving the maternity clinic with their newborn babies wrapped in newspaper.
What do we do?
We send starter packs over from the UK which local people and businesses help us with. No one is paid for this work. We currently have sufficient starter packs for over 100 babies. Our priority is to get the packs shipped securely to the families that need them.
How can you help?
We are seeking help to sponsor the secure shipment of baby packs to Ntabeni clinic:
* Bronze shipment - packs for 5 babies GBP 25.00
* Silver shipment - packs for 10 babies GBP 50.00
* Gold shipment - packs for 25 babies GBP 100.00