Baby Care Basket Gift (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.
How your gift has helped Laughter Africa children in the past:
Our latest new mum-to-be is going to be Isha. She came to the ICC in October 2023. We found her living on the streets of Funkia were she lived for 3 years. She was eight months pregnant when we found her and she is about to give birth any day now.
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 no absolutely no family here to support her and ‘boyfriend’ isn’t around any longer either – he has two other “wives” and he has no use for Isha anymore now that she is pregnant. Her mum and dad are dead so she is truly isolated. She is about to turn 18 on Christmas Eve.
Once she has given birth, we will find a place to rent for Isha. There is a place nearby the ICC which would be ideal for her so we can keep an eye on her and her baby.
She has never been to school so once she has settled with the baby and gotten into a routine then we will pay for her to attend vocational school where she would like to learn tailoring. We will also be providing Isha with a’ help a baby basket’ so the baby has everything that they need. We know that Isha will make an excellent mother – she is already very motherly to the children in the ICC and keeps an eye out for each of them.
But for now, it looks like we will be welcoming a baby into the ICC any day soon! Exciting!
One of the other girls who received a 'help a baby basket' is Saffie. She is one of our old girls who already had a five year old daughter called Mary. Three years ago, Saffie had been living on the streets and gave birth without any pain relief in an unfinished building with only a passer-by for help. She never attended a single clinic throughout her pregnancy. Thankfully she gave birth to a healthy baby boy called Moses. Sia’s experience was similar to Saffie. She is another of our old girls who lives on the street. At the beginning of September 2021, she turned up at the ICC in labour. We managed to get her to the clinic in Adonkia in time and she gave birth to a beautiful girl. Throughout her pregnancy, she too had never attended a clinic or hospital and she received no check ups whatsoever. We also provided Sia with a 'help a baby basket.' Both Sia and Saffie are great examples of how there are so many pregnant girls living on the streets without any support in their pregnancies.
This gift also pays for the training of a new mum in our mum and baby sessions every December. 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 wanted to see if we could help make a difference in building their relationships with their children. In 2022, we had 105 girls attend.
Sometimes the girls don’t know how to express their love for their children as they were never shown love by their own families. We don’t want the wounds of the past to be inflicted on the next generation. Unfortunately, some of the girls are not mothers through their own choice and become pregnant as a result of commercial sex work or sexual assault. This makes the relationship they have with their baby challenging and sometimes they even feel resentful. We try and help the girls work through these feelings as the girls ultimately want to be the best mothers they can be for their child. The reason why the training is so important is that infant mortality is so high in Sierra Leone.
So we taught the girls about positive parenting techniques and other non-violent forms of discipline, by emphasising the idea of showing their child love. We gave each girl a teddy bear to give to their child. When they presented the toy, they told their child “You are my piken (Child in Sierra Leone) and I love you.” For some it was the first time that they had expressed their love to their child. That was pretty powerful to witness.
We were joined at the training by one of the newest members of the Laughter family ‘Ezekiel’ who was born on 14th November 2022. His mum, Sento had a 5 hour operation as she had a complicated delivery but thanks to your donations we were able to afford all her medicine and save the lives of both mother and son. Here is Sento singing two new lullabies that she had learned at the training. Another new member of our family was 6 day old Isha, whose mum was Emma.
This gift also treats the girls’ children so at least once a week we get a girl coming with her baby for treatment. One example is a girl from mobile Mbalu who brought her 20 month old baby Hassan to see us. He was so malnourished- we could see his ribs. Mbalu has not had an easy life. Her mother died of Covid and sadly, her sister died in childbirth. With nowhere to go, Mbalu ended up on the streets where she became pregnant. Tragically the father of her baby died after being hit by a vehicle. We took baby Hassan to hospital and he made a full recovery.