#savethebabies: Help Children Rise out of Poverty

The doctors warned that the Akoba's outcome was grim.

As a 15-month-old toddler, he weighed less than 10 pounds — less than half the average weight of a healthy child his age.

His mother and twin sister participated in a feeding program through our Diaper Drop Good Shepherd's Fold, a nonprofit that serves orphaned and vulnerable children and families. Through your support, babies and children receiving care at Good Shepherd's Fold now have enough cloth diapers to keep them clean, dry and healthy. 

As a little baby with special needs, Akoba's disability was making it challenging for him to eat. 

“We were torn about what to do; his case was so unique. Akoba has special needs and he has a loving mother, but the mother was not able to provide him with the level of care that he desperately needed,” said Corrine of Good Shepherd’s Fold.

“We decided to go ahead and bring him in residence at the GSF Baby House to provide more advanced medical care and supervision, but only if the mother continued to stay involved. Every week, the baby’s mom spent 3 full days and 2 nights at the baby house. She moved to live within walking distance of GSF, and she stopped in to see him every day.”

The team began him on a feeding tube and eventually were able to stabilize the child. Slowly, she said, he started to gain weight. 

‘The baby went from being tube fed and on the brink of death to receiving appropriate medication for his disabilities, eating orally, and ultimately being reunified full-time with his mom,” she said. GSF is located in the Buwondo Village of Uganda. In an agricultural community, many families rely on sugar cane. They live without plumbing and running water, fetching water on a daily basis and cooking over charcoal or firewood stoves.

GSF started its work in the community as a home for orphaned and vulnerable children but has grown its mission to support the greater needs of families as a whole as well as the community. Its current mission is making disciples through childcare & advocacy, education, and community development so that we are holistically building thriving families and transforming communities for Christ.

GSF is a Jake’s Diapers Diaper Drop partner, and the organization has relied on our diapers to help children in its care as well as special needs kids.

“Your partnership has helped the people we serve by providing hygienic, quality reusable diapers,” Corrine said. “These diapers are used for the children in residence at Good Shepherd’s Fold, specifically the babies in the baby house and some of the older, special needs children in residence. When the diapers begin to wear, we pass them on to babies and special needs children who are on the GSF Community Development programs, such as the infant feeding program. 

“Your continued partnership with us allows us to provide an adequate amount of reusable diapers for the babies and special needs children at GSF,” she said. “Adequate diapers ensure that our babies and special needs children do not get diaper rash or sit in soiled diapers for too long! This simple amenity is truly life-changing for the babies and special needs children.”

Akobo is no longer a toddler near-death. He's now a thriving child benefiting from diapers, thanks to you. His mom now works with a GSF program called Ekiggo to provide therapy, support and respite care to families of children with disabilities in the community.

“His mother is a great encouragement and role-model to these families as she lovingly and selflessly cares for her own child with disabilities,” Corrine said. “It’s beautiful to see his mother giving back to her community in this way and joining in the mission of GSF to holistically build thriving families and transform communities for Christ.”

Thank you for the joy you bring to Akoba's family. 

~ Stephanie

About Our Global Efforts: Through a trusted network of community-based partners Jake’s Diapers provides predominantly reusable options to solving hygiene needs worldwide. We have a growing list of diaper drops in countries outside the United States.

Make your impact today! A donation of $16 solves diaper need for moms and babies like the ones in our story

 A mother and daughter were stuck in a cycle: though enrolled in a program that provides childcare and support for the mother to work towards self-sufficiency – the two attended only sporadically. The pair began receiving diapers from the Greater DC Diaper Bank, one of our Diaper Drop partners. Subsequently, attendance at this support program improved.

“The case manager asked her what had changed – they were delighted to be seeing more of the family! The mother replied that with the diapers coming from the program, she could now afford bus fare to get to the program regularly,” said Lisa of the Greater DC Diaper Bank. “As a result, her daughter benefited from early education and nutrition programs, and the mother got to work more closely with the case manager to address other challenges in her life.

The Greater DC Diaper Bank serves families living in the DC area, where recent studies show a base income of $106,000 vital to living moderately comfortable while raising two children. Since this is such an expensive area to live, families are stretching and making difficult decisions every day to ensure their kids have what they need, Lisa said.

“We are grateful to have the ability to offer options to the families we’re working with, and meet them where they are,” Lisa said. “One of our partners (the one who has been most interested in cloth diapers) is a doula program specifically for low-income African American mothers, who are most at risk for postpartum maternal health challenges. Packages from Jake’s allows this program to present cloth diapering as an option for these parents who might otherwise not have a choice.”

Working with Jake’s to supply diapers to her area has been extremely helpful to impacting people in that community.

 “The fact that the packages we get from Jake’s come ready to go,” she said, “Organized and understandable for mamas who are in the middle of life with a brand new one – makes all the difference in the world.”

 Thanks for helping babies! 

 ~ Stephanie

About Our Diaper Drop Partners

DC Diaper Bank is just one of our many Diaper Drop partners Jake’s Diapers features regularly to shed light on the stories of the people we serve in order to increase awareness about the impact a donation of hygiene products can have on a single individual.

In a garden in Jinja, Uganda, a town nestled near the shores of Lake Victoria, one would expect to see life growing. But this life was not the type rooted in the ground: a woman stumbled upon an abandoned 8-month-old baby, an event that would change the path of her life forever.  

The woman rescued the infant and brought her to Amani Baby Cottage, an organization that provides care for orphaned and abandoned children, with a mission to find permanent homes for all of the kids it serves.

The 8-month-old, Grace, had called Amani Baby Cottage home since she was found in fall 2018 - until this month when the woman who found her was finally able to welcome her as family.

Our wonderful friends shared this update about Grace and her new family:

“We have great news, Amani Family! Our sweet baby Grace is now being fostered to be adopted!!!

The wonderful woman you see holding her was actually the one who found her after she was sadly abandoned last fall. These wonderful people have been working towards becoming licensed foster parents since then and, just a few days ago, Gracie was able to join her forever family.

Though there is now a place at Amani that feels a little empty with Gracie gone, we could not be more ecstatic for her! We will still keep up with Grace on a regular basis and have sponsors continue to support her new family and our social workers during this transition for the next few years. Please join us in praying for Grace, her new family, and everyone at Amani during this sweet transition. 

Adoption into a forever family is one human act that in part emulates what He has done for us. Well done Mama and Papa Grace...we are here to support you through the foster to adopt process.”

Grace’s story is not uncommon. We serve abandoned babies around the world, and your donations ensure we can empower these individuals to live clean, prosperous and healthy lives.

Thanks for helping Grace and other babies just like her. 

~ Stephanie

About Our Global Efforts: Through a trusted network of  community-based partners Jake’s Diapers provides predominantly reusable options to solving hygiene needs worldwide. We have a growing list of diaper drops in countries outside the United States.

Make your impact today! A donation of $16 solves diaper need for moms and babies like the ones in our story

Across the country, 62% of working moms headed to their jobs are also raising infants at home, according to the National Diaper Bank Network.

Beyond dealing with the regular exhaustion that comes from tending to the demanding needs of a wee one, one in three U.S. moms suffer from diaper need, also according to NDBN. That’s a lot of working moms struggling to make ends meet. 

Most childcare facilities require parents to provide diapers for their children, meaning struggling to provide diapers also creates a hurdle when moms need to get to work.

“Nationally, 57% of parents experiencing diaper need who rely on childcare said they missed an average of four days of school or work in the past month because they didn’t have diapers,” according to the Wisconsin Diaper Facts sheet on NDBN.

Four missed days of work or school because of a lack of diapers. 

Jake’s Diapers launched its Direct Aid diaper loan program in 2018 to serve more of these individuals in need. 

For example, one mom who benefitted from our national Direct Aid loan program let us know how the donation transformed her diaper changing experience.

“You sent us diapers a few weeks ago,” she said. “I was in shock at the box and then in tears seeing inside. Every time I change my daughter, I feel so much love knowing so many people cared enough to help me put clean, comfortable diapers on my daughter. Even my older children love the diapers. Such cute and beautiful colors.”

About Our National Efforts: Jake’s Diapers provides reusable options to members of the National Diaper Bank Network to supplement their work with single-use items. We also maintain partnerships with a network of organizations throughout the United States to support their efforts to help others live clean, healthy and prosperous lives. In late 2018, we also launched a direct aid cloth diaper loan program for individual applicants in the U.S.

Nestled near the source of the River Nile in a city called Jinja, Uganda, stories of loss fill young children’s lives.

For example, John‘s mother is deceased and his father is unable to care for him. Sarah’s mother passed away after giving birth, and her father was unable to care for her. Caroline was given up at 3 months old, with her family unable to care for her.

These three children are all part of the family at Amani Bay Cottage, a home that provides care for orphaned, abandoned and needy children, from newborn to 5 years old. 

“Our goal and mission is to find a permanent home for all of our children, either through reuniting with their families or adoption,” said Emily Saum of Amani. “Amani means peace in Swahili, and when people walk onto the property, we hope that they feel the peace that passes all understanding. Even in the broken and hard times in life, we hope that they can see God working and gives peace to the broken, to the orphan, to the hurting.”

The cottage is a “busy place,” Emily said, full of kids playing, babies sleeping and eating. They have staff and interns who help keep the place operating, overseeing daily activities from playtime to preschool to social work.

The Amani Baby Cottage recently joined Jake’s Diapers list of Diaper Drop partners, and we’re happy to have made a difference for the organization already.

“Having (cloth diapers from Jake’s) has helped us tremendously,” Emily said. “We are a babies home, so we can go through diapers like no tomorrow! Disposable diapers can become so expensive as we need so many. This became the most logical thing to use. And we are so blessed to have Jake’s Diapers as a partner!”

Thanks for helping the children of Amani Baby Cottage! 

~ Stephanie

Stephanie Bowers, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Jake's Diapers

www.jakesdiapers.org