A bit of training and a lot of love transform!

When Adashe came to us, his caregivers quickly noticed he was developmentally delayed and worked hard to meet his needs

The Hope House Nursery at Kuda Vana is the only one of its kind in our region. Thus, Zimbabwe Social Services places most, it not all, of the infants in our area who are without family who can care for them at Kuda Vana Children’s Home. 

Little Adashe* arrived at Kuda Vana in April 2019.  Having been abandoned at birth, he spent four months in the hospital before coming home to Hope House. Everyone was so happy to welcome him. When Adashe reached nine months, his caregivers began to notice that he was a little slower at responding to voices and stimuli.  His reactions rate seemed much slower than other babies for his age.  He preferred playing alone, rather than interacting with other babies.  Adashe looked unhappy most of the time and was always afraid of new people who came into the nursery.  It took time for him to grasp concepts compared to the other babies.  

 The Mamas in the nursery put our heads together and pooled our ideas in order to help Adashe.  Childcare techniques that we had learned at various workshops Kuda Vana had sent us to came in very handy. Vital training like this is part of what your donations help provide! We all tried as much as we could to step up in showering him with so much love and tried to understand him as much as we could.  There were lots of smiles, hugs, and group singing which really seemed to help.  With time, Adashe began to smile a lot more and even sing with the others.  Voila! We had won another little soul to become a happy baby.

 As of now Adashe is one of the most improved babies in the nursery.  He can eat well on his own and is a neat and clean eater.  He is turning out to be bright and intelligent.  He can now interact with the other children well and has since stopped crying so much. He interacts with the other children well.  He knows and acknowledges the other babies and treats them with care and love.  We were all touched when we witnessed him giving a toy to one of the other babies who was crying.  He is promising to be a great problem solver.  He used to be so very quiet but now he talks and laughs so much more than before.

 Adashe has shown great improvement this past year, physically and intellectually.  He has grown to be such a happy baby.  We all love the Adashe that he is now, and we embrace all of the improvements that he is showing.

-       Written by Mama Progress, Caregiver in the Hope House Nursery 

*Kuda Vana does not use the real names of children in our care