This blog post is the second installment in a two-part series written by our CEO Lyn Gould about exciting new developments for Butterfly Children’s Hospices.
“In my last blog recounted the story of Snowy as background to a new project we have been working on and about to bring to fruition in the Changsha orphanage, the ‘Butterfly Care Home for Fragile Children’ It has long been a hope of mine that by being in the orphanage, training and modelling care that we would improve care for fragile and vulnerable children on the medical floor of the orphanage. Currently the Butterfly Home cares for those who have very high needs and are categorised as ‘life expectancy of less than 6 months’. As we have seen, time and time again, this shortened life expectancy is often improved, the children’s quality of life and physical condition much more settled with the higher level of care given in our home. But over the years we have received many children (like our precious Snowy) who, with better care would not need to come to the Butterfly Home or deteriorate to such a fragile condition.”
In the short few days Snowy has been in the Butterfly Home, we are already seeing signs of hope behind Snowy’s eyes; reinforcing the urgent need for this new project, to help more children like Snowy before it is too late for them. She is allowing her ayis to hold her, sing to her and she is slowly starting to relax in their arms.
The Vision
The expectation is that during the five year duration of the project all orphanage staff who care for fragile children will be trained and capable of delivering care which will prevent a fragile child’s condition deteriorating to the point where they need intervention by staff of the Butterfly Home. The orphanage will provide and renovate rooms to our specification on the medical floor for the Butterfly Ward. Butterfly Children’s Hospices will provide 6 of the 8 ayis, a housekeeper, the nurses, the food and all equipment for the children. We will provide training, plan and supervise the daily care of the children and work with the whole orphanage team. There will be 6 cots, a bedroom, day room, food preparation room, and bathrooms to cater for little children as well as bigger children. Orphanage staff will work with our Butterfly staff to provide the care to a high standard. In the agreement signed with the orphanage director, Butterfly will provide training places for orphanage ayis, nurses, doctors – and in the later stages of the plan we will offer supportive training to parents of children with complex needs, hoping to be able to prevent the need for them to abandon their child. The project will be evaluated at the end of each year to assess progress and whether we can continue with the plan to devolve responsibility a bit more each year on a sliding scale from year one when Butterfly Children’s Hospices will have a very hands on approach to the daily care to year five where we will provide minimal oversight.
Over the next number of months we will keep you updated with the progress of preparations in the lead up to the opening of the new Butterfly ward. These are some of the ‘before’ pictures and we cannot wait to share the developments as the renovations get underway.
We have had some very generous donations from loyal supporters to cover the initial costs for the opening of this ward and we are very grateful for this. A project of this magnitude will require ongoing funding and sponsorship and when the ward opens we will be looking for crib sponsors for the children and donations to cover day to day costs to provide care … so watch this space for more information about how you can help!
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