Crisis Nursery

overwhelmed

today I had my first visit to the crisis nursery, and I will never forget it.

The crisis nursery is a house in Lilongwe that cares for babies up to about 2 years of age, and as the name suggests, its an emergency care service. At any one time there are 30 babies, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a variety of different living rooms and play rooms. 5 staff at any one time, which means each worker is caring for 6 children at once.
Anyone who has children would know what this would mean, even one child means constant feeding, nappy changing, nursing, washing etc. but 6 children to care for? with another 30 babies around, all crying at once when they are hungry?? It doesn’t take much to imagine the scene. It still didn’t prepare me.

There was an 8 day old baby whose mother died in child birth, no other family, numerous orphaned babies, severely malnourished children whose families have tried for months after a mother has died to care for them, but finally given up. Some babies will go home to relatives when strong enough, many will wait for placement somewhere. Some of these children come to our village.

I went for a 10 minute visit. About 2 hours later we left. After feeding baby after baby, holding them, a few to many tears, playing with them and changing them, i finally left.

It's still a bit of a new emotion to describe