Friday, March 04, 2011

The 257th good thing about Lagos: Visiting a motherless Babies home

Last week after our regular Bible Study, we went as a group to visit an orphanage, called the Motherless Babies Home.  We went to spend some time seeing the facility and holding the babies.  Many of the 100- some children were at school, but there were many babies and toddlers and physically-challenged who were there during the day. 

I really love these women I interact with at Bible Study -- they are such a sincerely good group of women!  Here we are talking to the matron of the orphanage.

 We were not allowed to take pictures of the children, but here are a couple pictures of the facilities.
 Don't know why this picture is so foggy -- I think my camera had some condensation on it.  It really wasn't foggy outside.
 Chevron is a big supporter of this facility, but I was pleased to see that Conoco Nigeria had been a past supporter.

I had a nice time holding a skinny little girl who they said was a year old, but didn't look older than 4 months.  There was a newborn baby who was absolutely precious who had been found in a dumpster the previous week with umbilical cord still attached.  There were a number of heartbreakingly handicapped children who spend their days laying in cribs without much human contact at all.  There were a number of babies and children that looked like nothing but skin and bones.  I know they are fed there, so I didn't know if they had just recently arrived or had some kind of illness that didn't allow them to be nourished.  It was so sad.  But many babies also looked very good and happy.  We brought toys and books for them, but we were warned that they often disappear, taken by workers to their homes.  The Chevron ladies that come there weekly always bring their toys home with them so they have them to use each week when they return.

We had a lovely visit and, since this home is very convenient and welcomes visitors to come as their schedule allows and interact with the babies, I hope to stop in regularly.

1 comment:

Melissa F said...

I am in Young Women in my ward - Laurel Advisor. One of the girls for a value project is collecting shoes to send to an orphanage in Africa. I can't remember what country. I was just put in so I don't know the girl well, but i'm having a hard time being optimistic about her project that the cost of shipping them to Afria on top of the fact that I wonder if the orphans will actually get the shoes. I've just stayed quiet about it though so as not to be a pessimist.