Jasmine

In our July e-newsletter, you may recall the story of one of our newest beneficiaries, Julia and her baby girl, who were welcomed during the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic.  We were able to welcome several groups of new mothers and their children because of the protective measures we were fortunate to put in place all of which is thanks to the generosity of, you, our supporters.

  

Starting a new chapter of her life in The Sreepur Village, Julia has since changed her name to Jasmine and has settled in very well and seems happy. She has a significant cognitive impairment and her attention span is very limited so she is currently unable to participate in any of our training and development programmes.

Jasmine joins our mother and baby parenting classes and is living in the baby house sharing a room with another family. The other mothers have made Jasmine feel welcome but can get frustrated with her as she is very slow. Staff are being very positive and encouraging all of the mothers to give Jasmine time to adapt.

Jasmine has real difficulty with her speech and if it was not for the imposed lockdown we would actively get her further assessments. We were hoping to get some professional support in the form of an OT, Sign language trainer but as all services are being offered online this will not be suitable for Jasmine as she struggles to understand and concentrate.

As The Sreepur Village focuses heavily on empowering women to independence through various training programmes, Julia and her baby will need specialised support which is tailored to her needs as, sadly, she will never be independent.

Where we can, we are supporting Jasmine and her baby over the next year to keep them safe, stable and provide them both with nutritious diets that will enable them to be strong and healthy. Jasmine's baby is nearly a year old and is severely malnourished and very weak, so we will do everything we can to support them in the way we best can.

In order to find Jasmine and her daughter a long term placement, we are liaising with a referral agency. As Jasmine can not independently care for daughter, in Bangladesh her daughter would normally be given up for adoption but as we are a charity that strongly believes in not separating children from their mothers the referral agency have agreed to take this on.

The Sreepur Village has been keeping destitute families together since 1989 and it is with your support that we have been able to continue to help re-build the shattered lives of more than 100 impoverished mothers and over 200 vulnerable children.