Imagine not being able to afford nappies for your little one! Many women in shelters who are facing homelessness, escape from domestic violence or other hardships deal with this problem every day. Enter The Nappy Collective, an awesome initiative to help these women. Mum’s just like you trying to do and make the best for their children. Read on for more and how you can get involved!
The Nappy Collective is an organization that collects unused disposable nappies and distributes them to women’s refuges and shelters across Australia. Holding collectives twice a year, The Nappy Collective aims to collect as many nappies from the public to donate to mother’s fleeing violence and families in need.
Formed from humble beginnings, The Nappy Collective began in October 2013 when Sandra Jacobs found a stockpile of her daughter’s unused nappies in the back of her closet. Making this discovery, plus combining her new found knowledge of mothers in shelters who were struggling to provide basic essentials for their babies, Sandra held her first collective that month. In that collective alone over 1500 nappies were collected at one drop point in Melbourne, and then distributed.
After the initial response from the first collective, Sandra used her passion for innovative charity, and continued to organise more collectives in various locations. The Nappy Collective has now grown into a successful charity that has 214 drop points located in 17 cities and has collected a total of 226,207 nappies which have been distributed to 80 beneficiaries across Australia.
Sandra said, “We aim to make it simple and easy for many people to help struggling families in need through collective giving. Surplus nappies are often accumulated by parents as babies grow quickly from one size to the next, giving many parents a stash of nappies that would normally go to landfill. Donating unused nappies assists these families to focus on longer term, deeper care of their children by relieving them of short term challenges and stress”
With newborns needing 10-12 nappies a day, and toddlers requiring roughly 6-8 nappies a day, it is important that these families are provided with enough clean nappies to ensure they keep their child free of health issues which may aggravate their already dire situations.
The Nappy Collective organises two collectives each year. The first runs from 1 – 15 of May and the second runs from 16 – 30 of October. For additional information or to find your closest drop point visit www.nappycollective.com.
Will you donate your nappies? Comment below