A close-up portrait of a sleeping baby boy at Children's…

A close-up portrait of a sleeping baby boy at Children's Village Bakoteh.

This is one of my absolute favourite pictures in this project so far. It is a little boy sleeping at the SOS Children's Village Bakoteh nursery for babies.

The story I have to accompany this picture is from Ramatoulie, a 34-year-old woman who looks after the babies in the nursery in Bakoteh. This is what Ramatoulie's day is like, in her own words:

"A regular day starts at 6:30 am and finishes at 10:00 pm. We first bath all the babies before giving them a nice drink of milk. We then make their beds, wash their clothes, and when it is time for their afternoon nap, we enjoy the lunch one of us has prepared. Later in the afternoon, the toddlers play in the sitting room. That's also a time when children from the SOS Children's Village and other visitors come to spend some time with us."

As you would imagine Ramatoulie works hard: "babies can't tell you what is wrong and why they are crying. You just have to try your best and see what could calm them down. As you can imagine with so many tiny babies we often have sleepless nights".

Ramatoulie talks a little about what the experience of looking after these babies means which becomes very clear when it is time for the children to go to nursery and live in the SOS Children's Village, "It is very hard for us when we see one of the little ones we have cared for months leaving us for one of the village houses, even though we know we can visit them as often as we want. However, we wish all our babies a good life, full of happiness and wish each one of them to become someone good tomorrow".