CleanBirth - Saving Mothers and Babies in Laos
CleanBirth.org - Donate $5 Saves 2 Lives
Last night at the Yale School of Management I presented to the Outreach Non-profit Club (ONC). The pictures aren’t the greatest but I had fun introducing my project and hearing about the other client projects.
We thrilled to be an ONC client for 2015-16. Our goal: To get the fine business brains at Yale University to help us increase the sale of CleanBirth cards!
Today I was inspired by actress Mindy Kaling post yesterday showing a elementary school picture of herself with this caption:
I was all smiles because I got to go to school and be myself. #62MillionGirls don’t have that chance. Let’s end that.
The night before I post this picture of young girls in Laos, many of whom will be pregnant before they turn 18 with this caption:
Girls who give birth before age 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties. – UNICEF
@CleanBirth ensures that mothers, no matter what age, get clean birth counselling and birth kits before birth.
The reality is girls out there are still being neglected, pushed to the side, refused education, compelled to marry before adulthood. We must keep out voices raised in their support. We must empower them to find their own voices. They are the future. They matter. #62MillionGirls
This week has been a great one for CleanBirth.org. Hopefully more supporters will find us as a result of these developments:
First we were featured in Girls Globe in post I wrote about Millennium Development Goal #5. Here’s how the post begins:
As we approach the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, it is clear that many countries will not achieve the 75% reduction in maternal mortality prescribed by MGD Goal 5. According to the World Bank, “…of all the MDGs, the least progress has been made toward the maternal health goal.”
Here’s the full post http://girlsglobe.org/2015/09/23/mdg-5-moms-still-need-our-help-especially-in-rural-areas/
Then, just today, we learned that CleanBirth.org was just selected as a client for Yale School of Management’s Outreach Nonprofit Consulting Club. http://groups.som.yale.edu/outreach/home/
Our proposal is for the students to develop a marketing plan for CleanBirth cards (Baby Shower, Birth Provider, etc..). So thrilled to have their help on this. By expanding our card sales, we will make the organization more sustainable!
I will be making presentation to potential team-mates in 2 weeks!
This week I did a review for our Facebook friends about what CleanBirth does everyday with your donations:
Our $5 birth kits contain infection preventing items: soap, gloves, 2 cord clamps, a sterile blade, 2 sterile pads: one for placing under mother and one for covering baby when she’s laying on mother. We also include photograph instructions that show in pictures how to use the kit.
Our Kits make the difference between life and death to moms birthing at home without a trained attendant. We train nurses to distribute the kits, sit with families and train them in the kit use, and follow up with mothers after birth.
We not only provide birth kits and training but we ensure that the kits make it to some of the most remote places in Laos. Moms in these villages often birth alone — making the sterile supplies and the birth counseling we fund critical to safe outcomes.
CleanBirth.org is so lucky to have the support of donors from around the world. Some of our most committed supporters live right in Laos. They understand the reality of Lao life, and since many of them are mothers, they want to contribute to the making other moms and babies safe. One such mom, Danyel, reached out when her daughter Rylan was not yet a year. She said she wanted to raise money for CleanBirth at her daughter’s first birthday. Such an amazing idea. Friends came and donated — and then Rylan’s mom and dad contributed a large sum themselves.
This little girl might not know it but her 1st birthday will have a HUGE impact: 180 birth kits! 180 safe births! 180 babies and 180 moms with a better chance at survival!
Would you like to host an event to support moms and babies in Laos? Email me: kzalota@cleanbirth.org. Thanks!
