By Eva Fernandes, Founder of Born.
The Baby Bank Network is a charitable organisation started in May 2015 by Becky Gilbert, Melissa Burgers and myself, Eva Fernandes.
The Baby Bank takes baby items such as clothes, slings and
nappies that have been used and loved by parents but are no longer
needed, and redistributes them to parents who cannot afford to buy these
items new or second hand. Reusing items saves money and is environmentally friendly.
I personally find it shocking that families in this country
have to go without. Bristol has an unacceptable level of child poverty
and we want to help redress the balance by providing every family with
the essential items they need to raise a baby. There has already been
interest from people who want to do this in other areas and we intend to
support them in making sure all babies have their basic needs met.
The response we have had in these first few weeks has been
fantastic. It's a simple idea and people have been donating lots already
- the space we have had donated by The Big Yellow Self Storage Company
is already too small. So our next aim is to find a warehouse space where
we can clean and sort the growing number of donations.
Thanks to Born's connections with our fantastic suppliers,
we will be able to obtain new items at trade price and have already
secured a financial donation and end of line items from Lansinoh. We are also lucky to have our logo and Facebook Page designed by local artist and illustrator Carys Tait.
Things are moving really fast and we already have a team
taking care of social media and others looking out for funds to tap
into. As a network, we want to support other organisations doing similar
work. We are connected with The Bristol Re-use
project which was recently set up with Bristol Green Capital funding.
We are also collaborating with The Bristol Nappy Library and the Avon
and Bristol Sling Library to give families long term nappy hire kits and
sling hire.
Keep up to date with the Baby Bank Network and our activities by liking our Facebook page and taking a look at our Baby Bank website
where you will find lots of information on how to donate your pre-loved
baby clothes and equipment, and how to donate time and money to help us
to support families in need.
Love,
Eva
Useful Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment