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In Jo's Blog

Something incredible happened today. It’s been in the making for over a decade, thought about actively for over two years, and actually planned for in the last few months.

But today, it HAPPENED.

We’ve been invited to set up a Help Desk in the Women and Children’s section of the Doon Hospital – right outside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Not just any Help Desk. This one is official.

Every single baby in the NICU will now be discharged with instructions to see our team at Gubbara – at six weeks, three months, six months and one year.

It’s a protocol now. We are part of the plan.

From here on in, parents will be asked to visit our Help Desk before taking their baby home. Our sensitive, caring staff will be there at discharge time to talk with parents at length, allowing them to share their fears and ask their questions, giving them hope and confidence and the reassurance that comes with knowing that there are people out there to support them on this new road they will be walking.

This is momentous, and who knows what will come of it? We set up our first Help Desk at the Doon Hospital over ten years ago and today we have a state-of-the-art assessment centre as a public private partnership with the government and we have put early intervention on the state’s agenda.

This is how it happens. Change is not cataclysmic. It doesn’t happen overnight. Change comes slowly and it requires long, slow, painstaking work. Effort. Faith. Doggedness and determination. One little baby at a time.

And then the change will happen.

We can help these children. We know that in our bones. If we can get to them soon enough, through mothers who have not been terrified into seeking our help but who are asking us to be partners with them on the journey, we know that we can change the course of their lives. We know it!

I visited the NICU this morning. I saw those babies with my own eyes – those tiny little birds, those minute little scraps of humanity, fighting for their lives. I can’t tell you how excited we are to be on this road with them, to be helping them overcome, to be part of this journey.

It is incredible. It is real, fundamental change, by little and by little.

Showing 2 comments
  • Shipra
    Reply

    Oh Jo, it’s difficult to express what I’m feeling now….dreams taking shape….efforts paying off….and reaching those who need it. Kudos to LRF!!!!!

  • Shaila Maria Faleiro
    Reply

    When your baby is in the hands of someone who’s held hundreds of babies and can still hold yours like its the most beautiful, precious one ever, you know you’re in the right hands. Doon Hos is on to good things, how wonderful for the families, and CONGRATULATIONS, Team LRMF! You are incredible!

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