#savethebabies: Help Children Rise out of Poverty

Last week was the National Diaper Bank Network’s Diaper Need Awareness Week (September 24-30, 2018), a week dedicated to raising awareness of diaper need: the lack of a sufficient supply of diapers to keep a baby clean, dry, and healthy. As we think about last week, we’d like to pop in with little refresher for you.

Jake’s Diapers started in January 2011, when I had an experience that changed my life forever. I was in Peru, on a mission trip to help kick-start a women’s ministry. We were in Pachacutec, a shanty town north of Lima. Homes were built out of whatever you could find. Average household income was less than $35 USD/month. Never in my life had I seen such poverty, nor so much joy and love. One afternoon, we visited a childcare facility. Little did I know that visit would change the trajectory of my life. What we saw that day was caregivers who loved the children very much, and they were doing the absolute best they could with very limited resources. They were re-using disposable diapers, because what do you do when you have to choose between food & diapers?

Diapers are a need, and over the last seven years we’ve learned so much about how access to diapers and other hygiene necessities empowers people to live clean, healthy and active lives.

What else have we learned? This same story of diaper need is ever present in America, too.

“Fifteen years ago, Joanne Goldblum was visiting clients’ houses as a social worker in New Haven, Connecticut. Her background didn’t prepare her for what she witnessed. … She watched parents take diapers off of their babies, empty the solids out, and put them back on to stretch their supply,” as reported in an article from The Nation.

Peru or America. It doesn’t matter. Parents need diapers, and not all parents can afford this basic hygiene necessity. They struggle every day with financial decisions among basic needs that hold them back from thriving.

It costs a family about $1,000 to afford diapers for one year for a child, The Nation article says. Parents who work a full-time job at minimum wage earn just $15,000 — making diapers a huge expense. What’s worse is that studies find this inability to afford diapers is directly linked to poor mental health for the parents.

One of our core values is poverty knows no geographic bounds. Today, we’re living out this value with Diaper Drops in over twenty countries, including here in our own Eastern Wisconsin backyard.

It's a joy to have you as a proud supporter of Jake's Diapers, it is you that is making the work we do possible. I encourage you to reach me at stephanie@jakesdiapers.org, with any questions you may have. I’d love to hear from you.

~ Stephanie