COLOURFUL BEGINNINGS
Colourful Beginnings (CB) is a UK charity supporting families with premature and sick babies in hospitals and in the community. They share Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) experiences on their social media platforms to bring hope in difficult situations.
Colourful Beginnings was founded on the 17th of November, 2016 by Ola Adegbenro, after experiencing two premature births herself and spending extended time in various NICUs and specialist hospitals. She realised that there was very little support for families with premature babies. The medical teams helped, but could only go as far as their line of duty permitted. Colourful Beginnings entire purpose is to bring love, hope and support to families of premature and sick babies in NICU and in the community as we know the journey does not end after discharge from NICU.
Adegbenro says, “From experience, we found that preemie parents (for obvious reasons) rarely have the opportunity to adequately prepare for the arrival of their baby. This means certain things/moments of importance that create beautiful, lasting memories are missed, this has led us to put together NICU care packages for families, just to help with those precious moments.”
CB’s care packages are free, thanks to sponsors. Mini Care Packages are available throughout the United Kingdom to everyone with a baby in the NICU, on request basis. Christmas Care Packages are delivered annually to families who are spending the festive season in the hospital.
Photos below from CB’s 2018 Christmas charity mixer in collaboration with TheUpWomen (formally KacheeTee Circle). The purpose of the event was to put together and deliver the care packages to Queens Hospital Romford.
World Prematurity Day: Our Stories
World Prematurity Day (17th November) is a global movement to raise awareness for premature births and the impact it can have on families. This film was created in 2018 for Colourful Beginnings and it features the stories of three families, including the founder of CB, Ola Adegbenro.
