Tweet

Yes, YOU, you right there, reading this site. Do you have five cents? Your five cents can SAVE A LIFE. WOW, right? In poor countries like Angola, women give birth on dirt floors and then their umbilical cords are cut with knives made from a piece of sugarcane pulled right out of the ground. Do you know what lives in dirt? TETANUS. In this country, we get vaccinated against tetanus as infants, and then booster shots if we get cut on something. These poor women who have their umbilical cords cut with dirty knives don’t have that, unless WE HELP. By the way, once a mother or newborn gets tetanus, they are going to die. Painfully. It causes excruciating muscle spasms and renders them unable to eat or drink, and then they die. The video I watched during the UNICEF presentation in Cincinnati was agonizing. But it also made me hopeful because I CAN HELP. I have five cents.

There are a few ways you can help- one is by clicking the widget in this post and in my sidebar and donating what you can. Yes, even one dollar, because that buys twenty vaccines. You can also buy specially marked packages of Pampers, look for the 1 pack = 1 vaccine sticker on the package. Don’t need diapers? Do you have a friend or family member who is pregnant? Does your nursery at church keep diapers stocked for infants? What about your local daycare center or women’s shelter?

Now, I asked the PRESIDENT of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF this question during her presentation- how do I know for SURE that my purchase of a pack of diapers or my donation to the Pampers/UNICEF fund will REALLY be used to buy a vaccine? How do I know the money won’t go to some corrupt government? Her answer? UNICEF does not work with governments. They work with NGOs, non-governmental organizations. They send a UNICEF employee to a country, and that person takes up residence there. They get to know the people in their village, they meet local leaders, they gain trust. THEN they help these organizations set up programs, clinics, whatever they need. So, for example, Pampers worked with UNICEF to set up the vaccination program, and the money that is donated goes directly to those non-governmental organizations to be spent on purchasing vaccines.

I hardly have the words to tell you what it means to me to have been invited to sit in the room with the President of UNICEF and ask her questions about her job. I also want you to know that the people who work for Pampers? Are absolutely AMAZING. When you think about a giant multinational corporation, you probably think about a bunch of men in suits sitting in offices making all the decisions, right? Well, in the case of Pampers, that couldn’t be further from the truth. One concept that we heard again and again is that products at Pampers are developed from listening to people’s stories.

The Moms on the Pampers Testing Panel who bring in their babies, diaper them, then talk to a Pampers employee about how the diaper feels and fits, they are helping develop diapers. The people in Brazil and China and Germany who see a Pampers employee in their grocery store demonstrating diapers tell them how much they appreciate being able to sleep longer at night because Pampers holds in wetness better than other brands. And the Moms in countries like Angola? Are grateful beyond words that their babies are actually surviving being born now that there are tetanus vaccines becoming available.

Click the widget below and you’ll go to a donation page where you can print out a tax receipt immediately. Pampers will track the donations that come through this widget, so we can see how well we’re doing to support the cause. Of all the things I have ever done with this blog, asking my readers to help UNICEF reach their goal of enough vaccines so that NO BABY EVER HAS TO DIE from tetanus has to be one of the most important. Five cents, people. Oh, and at the end of the presentation when we were told that Pampers had donated one thousand vaccines in each of our names to UNICEF, I started to cry. There are 1,000 vaccination shots headed to some village somewhere because of ME. For that, I am humbled and grateful. Please, now, click.

Tweet