Mother and Baby Care (Digital download)
This gift helps to support a new baby. So many of the girls we help either at home or on the streets are pregnant or have recently given birth. They literally have nothing for their baby once the baby is born. We are providing nappies, clothes, milk, baby baths and other assorted items just to give the new mums a helping hand while they adjust to motherhood. It’s the perfect present to give to any new mothers or fathers.
We will email you a digital version of the gift certificate and provide the gift to a child living, or formerly living, on the streets in Sierra Leone.
This gift helps to support a new baby. So many of the girls we help either at home or on the streets are pregnant or have recently given birth. They literally have nothing for their baby once the baby is born. We are providing nappies, clothes, milk, baby baths and other assorted items just to give the new mums a helping hand while they adjust to motherhood. It’s the perfect present to give to any new mothers or fathers.
We will email you a digital version of the gift certificate and provide the gift to a child living, or formerly living, on the streets in Sierra Leone.
This gift helps to support a new baby. So many of the girls we help either at home or on the streets are pregnant or have recently given birth. They literally have nothing for their baby once the baby is born. We are providing nappies, clothes, milk, baby baths and other assorted items just to give the new mums a helping hand while they adjust to motherhood. It’s the perfect present to give to any new mothers or fathers.
We will email you a digital version of the gift certificate and provide the gift to a child living, or formerly living, on the streets in Sierra Leone.
How your gift has helped Laughter Africa children in the past year:
One of the girls who gave birth in the last year was Isha. She came to the Interim Care Centre in October 2023. We found her living on the streets of Funkia were she lived for 3 years. She was seven months pregnant.
She was originally from Guinea, but was brought over on a boat to Sierra Leone by a much older ‘boyfriend’ when she was 14. She has absolutely no family here to support her and her ‘boyfriend’ isn’t around any longer either – he has two other “wives” and he had no use for Isha once she became pregnant. Her mum and dad are dead so she is truly isolated. She turned 18 on Christmas Eve.
After the attempted coup on 26th November 2023, there was a curfew and no one was allowed outside of their homes during the designated times. So of course, Isha went into labour around 2am on a Friday morning during the curfew. As we have no vehicle, Isata (our social worker) had to ask our neighbour Kinny who has a kekeh (a bit like a tuk- tuk) to drive them to the hospital. Isata said, ”I was so scared. We had to pass about 10 different checkpoints with soldiers/police with guns. I thought that I was going to get arrested. Isha and her baby’s life were at risk so I had no choice- I had to act!”
Thankfully they got to the hospital in the nick of time and Isha gave birth to a bouncing baby boy called Andrew.
We paid for a place to rent for Isha for two years and provided her with a bed and a ‘help a baby’ basket which included lots of baby clothes and other baby items so Andrew had everything that he needed. Isha is a fantastic mother. She has just started her second year at vocational school where she is learning tailoring.
This gift also pays for the training of a new mum in our mum and baby sessions every December. This December, will be our 5th annual training led by Isata and Rebecca (our nurse).
The training sessions help the girls to develop vital skills to help them through Motherhood, such as nappy changing, bathing, paediatric first aid and soothing practices including lullabies. Most of all we want to teach the girls how to show their child love. Sometimes the girls don’t know how to express their love for their children as they were never shown love by their own families. At every training we teach the girls about positive parenting techniques and other non-violent forms of discipline.
This gift also provides medical treatment for the girls’ children. One example is a girl from mobile, 17 year old Aminata who brought her 1 year old baby Ibrahim to see us. Ibrahim was suffering from malnutrition. They came to stay in the ICC after they were discharged from hospital and he needed some time to recuperate. He is much better now. Aminata has not had an easy life. She lived on the streets for 7 years. She went on the streets after her mum remarried and her step father started maltreating her. Ibrahim’s dad is a drug addict- he is addicted to the drug Kush and is unable to provide for Aminata and Ibrahim. While on the streets, she lost two of her best friends. One girl, Zainab, was caught stealing so the people she robbed injected her with acid. Her other friend Theresa was sexually assaulted and died as a result of her injuries. We reunified Aminata and Ibrahim with a family member in June 2024. We have just paid school for Aminata. She was super excited as she hasn’t been to school for years! But her and Ibrahim are now happy, safe and well!
And finally, just before we closed for Christmas 2023, we had a visit from Adama, one of our old girls, and her 2 week old baby Augustine who was wearing a hat with LOVE written at the top.
The song 'All you need is Love' came into my head and it made me realise how true that is. Adama and her child don't have anything of their own but they have each other and love for Augustine just radiated from Adama. It was just a timely reminder of what is actually important at Christmas.