A Japanese nursing home is recruiting babies for a heart-warming reason

In a unique initiative, a nursing home in southern Japan is recruiting babies and toddlers for an extremely wonderful cause. The nursing home plans to seek the help of these babies to keep the senior residents company and make them smile, AFP reported. New recruits at the facility in Kitakyushu must be under four years old.

A contract that their parents need to sign says that the babies and toddlers can show up for work "whenever they feel like it". They are allowed to take a break "when they feel hungry, sleepy or depending on their mood", the contract says. In return, the babies will be provided with milk formula and nappies.

Around 30 babies have already signed up for the job that asks them to lift upthe spirits of nearly 100 residents at the home, who are mostly in their 80s. "The mere sight of babies makes our residents smile," Kimie Gondo, head of the nursing home, told AFP, adding that "there is no shift roster or anything".

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The kids will be accompanied by their mothers at all times and they simply need to take a stroll around the nursing home. "The babies stay with their mothers all the time. It's just like they're being taken for a walk in a park," Gondo said.

Gondo says the scheme has proved to be a success as watching babies and toddlers walk around the facility is already doing wonders for the elderly residents. They are talking to the kids and laughing. Some kids now have such a good rapport with the residents that they all now feel like real grandparents and grandkids, Gondo said.

(With inputs from agencies)