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January Trip Part 2

Second day in Dnipropetrovsk and today was a day scheduled to assess the progress of the Dnipro Kids Baby Centre.

Ira and Natalie arrived at the Baby Centre at around 9.30am which allowed a little bit of time for a quick tidy up before the first of the mothers started arriving. Unfortunately an expected delivery of baby clothing sent from Edinburgh had been delayed in Ukraine over the chaotic Christmas period and this meant that stocks at the Baby Centre were running a bit low. There was sufficient to take care of the immediate needs though and the delivery was expected reasonably soon.

The Baby Centre seems to be worth its weight in gold in Dnipropetrovsk and there were a steady stream of mothers during the course of the day. Ira and Natalie were on hand to offer help and advice for those visiting.

I was informed on my visit that 2009 is the “Year of the Cow” in Ukraine. I hadn’t realised prior to my visit that Ukraine put a similar importance on the naming of years as they did in China. In conjunction with this, Natalie had purchased a number of soft toy cows for handing out to all the smaller children that visited the centre over Christmas. There was of course some nice boxes of chocolates for the older kids.

As well as being on hand for help and advice, the Baby Centre also tries to provide the mothers with basic baby needs. We have a monthly budget in place that allows Ira and Natalie to purchase stocks of nappies, baby food, shampoo and soaps. It’s very rare that a visitor to the Baby Centre doesn’t leave with half a dozen nappies tucked under their arm.

There seemed to be quite a little group of mothers chatting away in the meeting room as the day progressed. It would have been nice to think that it was my presence that was the reason behind so many visiting, but I suspect it was more down to the rumour of chocolates and soft toys that Natalie had leaked in the run up to Christmas. This theory was pretty much confirmed as I was punted to the corridor with a football to keep the kids amused whilst the mothers chatted.

The requirement for the Dnipro Kids Baby Centre was certainly confirmed during the day when a 16 year old mother turned up at the door for her first visit. She had been passed the details of the centre from a friend and Natalie had received a call from her that morning asking if she could visit. When she arrived she looked very nervous but Ira, showing all of her mothering instincts, soon had her relaxed and smiling.

The girl slowly opened up to Ira during her visit, which allowed Ira to assess her immediate needs. She was apparently part of the “gypsy” community and, with the rising cost of living in Ukraine, she was realling struggling. Ira sorted out some warm baby clothing, for the cold nights, and provided her with some baby food as well as passing on a handful of nappies to tide her over till her next visit.

Once all the mothers had gone I managed to sit down with Ira and Natalie and discuss the events of the day. One thing that was apparent to me was how much they cared about the mothers and children that visited and how they wished they could do so much more for them.

Of course we can only do so much to help but I got the impression that even just having the Baby Centre open, to allow the mothers somewhere to come and talk about their problems, seemed to a bonus in itself.

One thing that I did notice though, was my ability to keep the children occupied while the mothers chatted to Ira and Natalie seemed to be a bit of a help. I asked afterwards whether they thought that providing better toys and some sort of crèche facility would be of help. They seemed to think that this was a very good idea although the rising cost for the sort of toys needed would make it quite an expensive project. If funded though, I think that it would provide another service for the Baby Centre and could possibly see the introduction of designated “coffee mornings” where mothers can get together and relax and chat a little whilst the kids are looked after in another room.

So, on behalf of Dnipro Kids, please keep pestering friends and family for those baby clothes (especially the winter ones that will be excess to requirement come springtime) and we will make sure that the Dnipro Kids Baby Centre is always well stocked for the struggling mothers of Dnipropetrovsk.

Yours,
Steven Carr,
Dnipro Appeal Committee.
www.dniprokids.com

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