A Hygiene Revolution —August visit to the Mercy Home
First Impressions
On August 15th, two Trust members took Minna and her husband, Arnold to visit the Mercy Home. Minna has been very active in procuring supplies for the Mercy Home through her involvement with Finnish group, VAAKA. These wonderful people have worked so hard to gather much needed items.
On our arrival, we were rather disappointed to discover that many of
the new items we had brought on previous visits were unused, and the hygiene standard had slipped back to its previous low level. This in part was due to absence of one of the head
baby-carers who had just spent 10 days in hospital with baby Alistair while he had a second operation on his cleft-palette. We realised that raising the standard was going to require patience and repeated training! We were
also saddened to learn that 3 of the frail babies had just died of pneumonia.
A Revolution
After our initial discouragment we 'rolled up our sleeves' and went to work. First, at the suggestion of one of the men, we moved an used desk into the nursery to set up a baby-changing station for changing nappies. (Nursery renovation with proper changing stations, adequate sinks etc. is a pressing need. ) We located it next to one of the few sinks to encourage the workers to wash their hands after changing nappies!
Minna then went to work showing the girls how to use the new nappies and nappy covers. Susanna went through the nursery removing all the urine-soaked sheets, disinfecting matresses and putting clean sheets and waterproof pads. It was a cleanliness revolution! Dear Sister Maria said she now understood how the cleanliness standard should be maintained and promised things would be different next time we visit.
Arnold has a gift for caring for the babies!
Minna teaches the girls how to put on the nappy covers
