Lucy is a foster mother who has taken care of four refugee children.

It was April 1991. I heard the rebels were coming. The town was panicked. I had a local restaurant, selling rice and sauce. Everyone was running. One boy came to where I was and sat beside the pot. Then three girls put down their baskets and came to me. I asked them, "What happened?" They said, "We came to sell leaves. Because of the problem on the ground, we would like you to take us wherever you want to go. We are little children." Everybody headed to Guinea. This one here. She was this small [the size of a toddler]. I take her to be the same as my own daughter. I don't want her to go far. We eat together. We take a bath together. She doesn't give me problems.

I gave birth to six children, and five died. My breast milk was not good. I nursed them, and all five died. The first at birth, the second when it was crawling, the third began to walk ... The problem was my breasts. The last one, I pounded rice and gave her powdered rice with medicine. The way my belly hurt when I gave birth to my children. That's the same pain that this child's parent had.