Children in Gambia

September 26, 2011: Mariama, not yet a year old, is living in a transitional home for babies in the SOS Children’s Village in Bakoteh, 10 miles from Gambia’s capital Banjul. SOS opened the home for abandoned babies in 2004 at the request of the local department of social welfare, which was seeking temporary placement of babies in emergency situations. The department and police required a safe, loving environment for abandoned infants while they attempted to reunite the babies with their families or a foster family. When reunification is not possible, they turn over the infants to SOS Children's Village. Before the SOS Transitional Home existed, the babies were kept in the country's main hospital, where they received minimal care.

Infant in the Transitional Home

A House of New Beginnings

Babies fortunate enough to be brought to the SOS Transitional Home find peace, security, and comfort. Some were abandoned in the street or in front of a hospital or the SOS Children's Village at one-day- or a-few-weeks-old. All arrive with the same look of distress.

Very soon, they realize they are safe, attended to by four caretakers by day, including skilled nurses, and two at night. SOS staff cuddle them, speak gently to them, sing them songs, and feed them. The babies soon smile, shout, giggle, and sing. SOS mothers along with other children from the village visit them and sometimes take them out of the house for a few hours to play and spend time with other kids in the SOS Village. 

SOS caretaker with baby girl

SOS Lavishes Individual Care on Infants

The SOS Transitional Home for babies provides whatever the babies need. Some of them arrive with severe health conditions and require special medical follow-up and treatments, which they get at the SOS Mother and Child Clinic or at the main hospital in Banjul. 

Of the 80 vulnerable babies SOS has taken care of since the inception of the home, 16 have been reunited with their families or foster families, 47 have been admitted to SOS Children's Village, and sadly 8 passed away due to illness. At the moment, SOS staff are lavishing their attention on 9 infants in the home.

SOS-Bakoteh is one of two SOS Children’s Villages in the Gambia, where SOS has been providing loving family-based homes for vulnerable children since 1981. Every child deserves to grow up in a loving family. Sponsor a child today.