Back in January, a new little one came to the orphanage. Norah was just 5 days old when we met her. She came to the orphanage straight from the hospital. Her mother had been living on the streets when she was pregnant. Her mother’s diet consisted of whatever she could find. Norah was born at a local hospital where her mother was hospitalized for mental illness. When Norah arrived at the orphanage, the staff worried that she would develop problems from her mother’s lack of nutrition. In addition to these early struggles, due to the high number of children in the baby and toddler room, the nannies do not pick up babies for the first 2 months at the orphanage. They do this so that the babies can self soothe right away. There is only one nanny in this room at a time and she is responsible for taking care of every child’s needs. This method, for the nannies, seems to be the best way to take care of all of the children. The nannies at this orphanage truly care for the children in their care, but due to lack of training in child development, nannies are unaware of the long-term effects that this method and several others have on children. Today, on trips to the orphanage, we often find Norah left alone in a bed or infant bounce seat. She has learned to bounce herself in this seat to give herself comfort. She is interactive with adults when she is held and is slowly hitting important developmental markers. She is behind in her development, but as far as we can see this is only due to living in an orphanage from such a young age. She is otherwise a healthy, beautiful little girl. The nannies really are trying their best to do what they can to help the children in their care to grow up in a good environment; however, the task that they have been given is huge! They also do not receive a lot of training that would help them in their daily tasks of caring for these children. Hope Station has been developing relationships with these nannies and have been modeling child development friendly techniques. Rebekah Kepha has spent the last three years establishing good relationships with the nannies at the orphanage we serve. Many now are open to her suggestions, and are implementing the techniques they feel they can do. One of our goals at Hope Station, is to give these women the tools they need to be champions for the children they serve. Please keep Norah in your thoughts and prayers. Her mother is still in the hospital and is still struggling with mental illness. Her mother has not fully given up custody of her daughter and is not showing signs of getting better anytime soon. There is a process for custody to be taken from her, but it is a long and confusing road. We are just now beginning to understand how that process could work in China. If Norah’s custody stays in the hands of her mother, she may end up spending her life in the orphanage. She will never be able to have a mentally and emotionally healthy family. Every child deserves a healthy family, a forever family, and this is something we desperately want for her.
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Stephanie (Rommen) Li"Every child needs to be loved in gigantic quantities and with unbelievable quality." Archives
December 2018
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