La Pouponnière

It is hardly a secret that I have a big soft spot for everything adoption related. Our two beautiful girls both came to us through domestic adoptions in Idaho. And we have been very blessed in that we have an amazingly open and comfortable relationship with Ayla's birth family and have recently been able to establish a much longed for relationship with Amelie's birth family too.
Needless to say, when I found out that there was an orphanage in Dakar called La Pouponnière, I was very interested to go and have a look. A contact from Scott's work offered to come and pick me up since they go once or twice a month to help out by donating their time.

 

A person can not possibly be prepared at the sight of a room full of babies under a year old. It was a total baby bonanza upon entering the play room they have set aside for that purpose. There were of course the local ladies who work at La Pouponnière and there were several expats there that day who had just dropped by to lend a helping hand.

So we sat around for a while, holding, cuddling and playing with the little ones and then one by one they were nabbed and taken to a different room where they had bottles set up for all of them. Feeding time then commences in a most industrious fashion.

Interestingly enough, only few of the babies and children are actually available for adoption. La Pouponnière is more a place where newborns are taken in so they can receive the proper nutrition they so desperately need that first year. Many times the families are very much still in the picture and the babies are picked up again when they are around 9 months old.

It was an amazing place to visit and one I won't quickly forget.