The 5 Baby Challenge

Have you heard of the ‘5 baby challenge?’

As you may already know, The Small Things has recently been fundraising in order to raise money to provide wages to cover overtime hours for the mamas for the next two months. These overtime hours are not just for anything. These hours are vital for ensuring the survival of our newest and most vulnerable babies and this is our '5 baby challenge.'

In the last month a total of five orphaned new born baby girls have come into Nkoaranga orphanage; Hope, Irene, Joanita, Lulu and Faraja. One baby is usually enough to handle, right? This situation is made even more serious when you put into perspective the fact that these babies are now in an environment that consists of twenty two other children. This means we now have 27 children in total, 8 under a year old! Normally, the orphanage is staffed by just two to three mamas at any given time, plus volunteers - however, with this many new-born’s, that's just impossible.

Meet our five newest girls:

Faraja

Hope

Irene

Lulu

Joanita

This is why we have been paying every day for one or two extra mamas to come in and focus full time on the tiny ones, as part of our one-to-one care program (although in this case, it's more like a two-to-five program!)

For those of you who have been following the steps of The Small Things for a while now, you will have seen exactly how effective our one-to-one care program has been in the past. It has literally saved lives and the successfulness of it has strengthened our belief that little things really can produce great big outcomes!

Peace, at over one month old, weighed just 4 pounds (2 kilos), not gaining an ounce his first month. We hoped that applying an intense care program would help, and thanks to your donations, we were able to fund 24/7 care for him during his second month, where he doubled in weight!

And this is Peace now! He is a brilliant character; so cool, laid back and happy to sit back and observe!

Our goal this time was to raise enough money to continue to pay two extra mamas to come in every day for the next two months. It costs about $6/day for each staff member, which adds up to $800 for 60 days. Just $800 to make sure Hope, Irene, Joanita, Lulu, and Faraja all survive. We were overwhelmed with the rapid response and the generousness of our supporters who donated enough money to exceed our goal of $800 in just three days of our Crowdrise fundraising page going live! 

This doesn’t mean we will stop there. It is truly a massive relief to know that we have the secure financial ability to pay for the hard work and time that the mamas are taking out of their own busy family lives in order to ensure that the children of Nkoaranga Orphanage get the best start in life. This is such a crucial time and we are very fortunate to have such skilled, devoted and passionate women who do their best for these special little people.

The care for these babies will still need to continue after two months. Donations towards the ‘5 baby challenge’ would still very much be appreciated and any amount goes such a long way. Giving up one cup of coffee immediately covers more than half a day’s wages for one mama!

Our crowdrise page is still up and running. Click here to keep up to date on our progress and to donate to what is an extremely worthy cause. Please, help these gorgeous girls to grow up healthy and happy by giving them the best possible start in life! 

Volunteers are a fundamental part in the everyday running of the Orphanage. We are looking for volunteers to start as soon as possible! With this many children currently under the same roof, we need a few more energetic people to keep them all occupied and having fun! If you think you’re up to the challenge or know somebody else that might be, please email volunteers@thesmallthings.org today or visit our new and improved website for further information. 

Meet new friends from around the world by volunteering in Nkoaranga. In this photo we have Mie from Denmark, Sarah from America and Romany from England!