Past projects
Kosovo
CAI involvement in this project has now been completed.
The sight of a group of women playing with assorted babies and toddlers may not seem that unusual. Yet, for these children in care in Kosovo, it is a major step forward.
Until quite recently, lack of resources and understanding meant that the babies spent most of their days alone in their cots receiving little attention and even less opportunity to interact with people. Now a team of volunteers regularly visits each child, to play and provide vital emotional and intellectual input.
This input supplements the care provided by nursing staff. Babies will sometimes now be taken for walks in pushchairs, formerly an unknown treat.
They also have access to toys which help promote healthy development.
Good Progress
Said Nurse Angela O’Higgins from CAl who visited the project recently 'The volunteers have to be congratulated on how they have assisted the children. They are making good progress even though things remain overcrowded and some babies still have to share cots. The room is never quiet now with alert and lively children. Before it was eerily silent with babies who had lost interest in life.'
The volunteers have also painted the babies' rooms with large, colourful pictures and fundraised to buy a new carpet and a music centre with tapes to amuse the children.
Each child now has a personal folder which goes with him/her when they are moved to a small home or adopted/fostered by a family. The folders, which are beautifully produced, then become part of the family history of the child.
Already, people outside the hospital are recognising the developmental differences between children from this project and those from other centres. In turn, an alert and well-adjusted baby is more likely to be adopted into a family home than a withdrawn and unresponsive, emotionally scarred child.
