Brightening the lives of little children

One of the things that our group of volunteers did during our 6 weeks at this place was to brighten the lives of these little ones that spend many hours alone in their cribs, craving human touch and stimulating interactions. I have spent time looking at tactile books with them, looking at pictures and encouraging their sense of touch, and smell as well as giving them individual time  trying to elicit reactions from each one. The books have been a hit, and will stay there for use with individualt children. I wonder how long they will last, but that is beyond my control now.
Our daily outings to the park have been another way of providing new activities to the older children. Unfortunately with the rainy season upon us, this outing has not occurred for the last week as the ground is very wet. But the children still get dressed every morning wearing shoes and caps, and this alone seems to give them a lift!
 The first thing we noticed when we arrived was the lack of any visual stimulation for those children who cannot go to the playroom because of their young age or the presence of an infection. This means a lot of children on some days, with hours spent rocking themselves, looking at the ceiling or through the bars of their crib, or crying to be held. We thought the idea of mobiles over their beds, (which in Canada would be something done for much younger children), would at least give them  something to look at and perhaps awaken some of their sensory channels. Several of our group had brought little toys and bright coloured flowers with them from Canada. They spent hours making mobiles and on Thursday, our last day volunteering, we hung them up using decorated coat hangers. We think the difference between our arrival and today is quite visible, with bright colours bobbing over the heads of the little ones ones in their cribs.
My hope is that other people, perhaps those living in David itself, will think of the needs of these little ones and continue what we seem to have started.

Hasta luego.

Jennifer