2022 Achievements of Nos tout petits de Nice
Since 2015, Helping Hands supports Nos Tout Petits de Nice (NTPN), an association that accompanies and supports parents and families affected by the death of their little one during pregnancy, childbirth or in the days following birth.
In the PACA region, around 750 entire families per year are touched by perinatal grief forever. NTPN is responding to a continuous need in terms of perinatal grief in France’s 06 region. Just in the area, more than 200 families lose a baby every year. There is a crying need for scalable and up to date digital tools especially during the sanitary crisis. It is important to have and feel possible support 24/7 for bereaved families.
We raise awareness and provide training to over 1000 Health Care professionals dealing with bereaved parents, or during the final moments with the baby that precede the inevitable death.
Thanks to Helping Hands 2022 contribution, we have been able to focus on raising the general awareness of perinatal grief, besides our usual lines of work (parents & family support, as well as training to health care professionals).
On the pictures, you can see some merchandising examples like professional logo badges, printed t-shirts and business cards, which were very handy during the release of doves event (~40 participating parents & relatives) and the yearly conference visited by ~100 people each year (50% professionals, 50% families), and both events were covered by Nice Matin.
Our stories with the association
After having lost our baby daughter, I really felt the need to meet other parents, to be able to freely talk about Mei-Lyn without any judgment and to understand my emotional devastation. I was surprised by the health care professionals not knowing what to do – with our baby’s body or with us – or with all the admin papers and tasks. They simply did not have the training or tools to deal with the situation.
Grief is not a disease but its symptoms can surely be very impressive to the bereaved person and the surrounding people like family, friends, colleagues and health care professionals.
In 2012, I founded this NGO together with another bereaved mum and colleague, Florence Claverie Groenevelt, as well as with Christine Besson a midwife, and the neonatal reanimation director Dr. Christian Dageville from the CHU Nice Hospital.
Over the years, we have been trying to find continuous and consistent funding for our activities, through public and private organisations and people. The reality is that every year, it is a struggle to submit multiple subvention requests. As the NGO’s president, my whole team of 16 trained volunteers and myself, we thank Helping Hands’ for their yearly donations.