The following is a digest of excerpts quoting Save the Children in recent editions of national and international publications.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Stitching infant caps warms hearts Arkansans helping save newborns in African country of Malawi," March 25, 2007.
CONWAY - When Pamela Owen of Little Rock knitted 10 infant caps last year, she attached tags with greetings such as, "Welcome to the world, baby." For children in the southern Africa country of Malawi, the world can be anything but welcoming. More than 16,000 Malawi newborns die each year in their first month of life, according to the aid organization Save the Children.
Upon learning that something as simple as a cap can help prevent hypothermia in newborns, Owen and 93 other Arkansans joined knitters and crocheters around the country in making 280,000 caps for babies in developing countries.
Of this warming headgear, 75,000 arrived March 9 in Malawi - including 808 stitched by Arkansans. The remaining caps will be delivered to Bangladesh this week.
Save the Children and the Warm Up America! Foundation, a grassroots charitable organization of volunteer knitters and crocheters nationwide, coordinated the project, dubbed Caps to the Capital, because a sampling of the hats first went to Washington along with notes encouraging this nation's leaders to do more for newborns in developing countries.
Cheryl Gunnells, president of Warm Up America!, said the foundation got involved after one of its members read a New York Times article about a Save the Children report on the plight of mothers and newborns in de- veloping countries and impoverished rural areas of the United States.
"In that report, it mentions that some of these babies could be helped and not die, just from a simple thing like a knitted hat," recalled Gunnells, who also is executive director of publications at Leisure Arts in Little Rock.
"So, immediately, we knew that's what our role would be - to get the word out to knitters and crocheters." Warm Up promoted the effort on its Web site and contacted magazines such as Woman's Day about the project, and word spread.
"Friends told friends, schools told schools, children told children, and guilds and clubs all across America got involved," Gunnells said during a Jan. 31 presentation in Washington to Caps to the Capital participants.
"We only had about six weeks to pull this thing off," she said in a recent telephone interview. "People started knitting like crazy. It was absolutely amazing." Gunnells said she was particularly surprised to learn so many children were making the caps.
"I remember reading some of those [tags] where the children say, `I just wanted to do something that I knew how to do to help a baby,'" she said. "You could tell they were really heartfelt." Letters and hats came from people ages 3 to 99, from all 50 states, and from organizations and professions ranging from the Girl Scouts to bus drivers to doctors.
Clicking on Save the Children's Web site at www. savethechildren.org/campaigns/caps-to-the-capital will lead to images of a whiteand-green cap resembling a smiling frog from Colorado and, from Michigan, a mostly white hat resembling a big-eyed duck with a yellow beak.
One message, from an unidentified Arkansas artisan, says, "May your child grow in health and wisdom." From a Kentucky knitter: "May your child and mine come into this world safely, live, laugh and grow up together - though they may be a world apart." Owen, who is director of alumni relations at Hendrix College in Conway, said first and foremost the caps were a baby gift.
"It was just like being a part of a community that was doing something positive instead of just talking about it," Owen said, adding that she learned just recently that the Arkansas hats had been sent to Malawi.
The U.S. ambassador to Malawi, Alan Eastham, states in an e-mail sent last week that the country was one of the world's least developed, "where the majority of people live in a type of poverty that most Americans would have difficulty imagining." An estimated 133 of every 1,000 children born in Malawi die before their fifth birthday, said Eastham, who is a native of Dumas.
"The caps, and other care techniques taught to [Malawi] mothers, help avoid newborn hypothermia during the period when newborns cannot regulate their own body temperature," Eastham explained. "The presentation of the caps helps to build awareness among Malawians of the need to use these care techniques." Eastham's wife, Carolyn, formerly of Morrilton, knitted several caps and organized women in Lilongwe, Malawi, to knit more than 70.
Dr. Tarek Meguld, a German physician who has worked at Bwaila Hospital for more than three years, was present when the caps arrived.
"It is inspiring that women in America would think to do something so small, but so essential for their sisters here in Malawi," Alan Eastham quoted Meguld as saying.
The Caps to the Capital project wasn't Owen's first foray into charitable knitting. Last year, she made more than 30 caps for young patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital as part of the Knitting for Noggins program, which gathered nearly 22,000 head warmers. That project was separate from Caps to the Capital.
This time, Owen got to see a picture of a Malawi mother holding an infant wearing a brightly colored cap that Owen had stitched - a hot-pink head warmer with small red blocks.
"It's a baby gift," Owen said. "It's just a smart, simple thing. It might make an impact. That's rewarding in and of itself."
The New York Times, “Charity Drive on 'American Idol',” March 9, 2007.
The producers of "American Idol" have announced that they will use two broadcasts in April to raise money for children's charities in the United States and Africa. For each vote cast after the April 24 show, sponsors, including Coca-Cola and AT&T, will donate an unspecified amount. (This week about 37 million votes were cast for performers on the show, according to Fox.)
On the April 25 show, which will feature performances by Gwen Stefani, Josh Groban, Pink, Annie Lennox and Sacha Baron Cohen, viewers will be able to make their own donations by telephone or the Internet. The show's producers said on Thursday that the proceeds, split equally between American and African charities, would go to Save the Children and other organizations in the United States, and to the United States Fund for Unicef, Save the Children and other groups in Africa.
The Green Bay Press Gazette (WI), “Afghan winter cold, but not like home,” By Jiffer Bourguignon.
February 10, 2007.As a Green Bay native, you would think I could take the cold. Yet here I sit, shivering in the blistery white winter of Kabul, Afghanistan, a world away from Wisconsin, where this week some schools were forced to close due to frigid temperatures.
In Afghanistan, it is said that the winter is the calmest time of the year because "it's just too cold to fight." After the cold Green Bay has felt in the last week and the many weeks of subzero temperatures I have felt in Kabul, I think we can both see the logic in that.
The water pipes in many homes here are frozen solid, as are the wells, and the remains of a snowstorm that hit town three weeks ago still blanket the city. The heat from the boukhari, the wood-burning stove that warms my office — - as well as roasts almonds and makes a mean espresso — begins to wane and I hike my shawl up around my shoulders, just as an Afghan colleague walks by in flip-flop sandals and no socks, a brash contrast to my Green Bay sensitivities.
Much like the lakes of Wisconsin, the Kabul River is nearly frozen over and children are shoe-skating across small off-shooting ponds, not unlike how I spent my youth in Green Bay. However, the similarities stop there.
In Green Bay, despite a few days of school closings, classes will continue. In Kabul, the cold means a long winter break from school, from early December until March.
While formal schools shut their doors for the winter, Save the Children, where I work, fills the void, providing students with an opportunity to read, discuss and learn so they may sharpen their skills and get ahead before the start of the coming school year. The children here understand that education is integral to long-term peace building, a concept almost as foreign to them as wearing sandals in winter is to me, as many have only ever known the violence of war.
The fifth and sixth grade boys I work with meet in a neighborhood home to study. Plastic insulates the windows and a wood-burning stove warms the room. Most children are barefoot with nothing more than a sweater pulled on over their shalwar kameez, the traditional light cotton pants and long tunic shirt. Argyle sweaters and "First National Bank" sweatshirts have made their way to the local markets via garage sales and clothing drives from afar.
The children are amazingly attentive, so eager to volunteer information, to share their opinion. They are respectful of others and take turns speaking; with wide eyes, they take in every word and absorb the praise of their instructor. "Awffereen," "Good," he says when the discussion, punctuated by coughs and sniffles, turns to the topic of the Save the Children library books that the boys are reading.
Library books are returned and new titles are given in exchange. The boys scramble for the return pile, trading last week's reading in for popular copies of colorful story books such as "The Golden King," which tells the story of a wealthy king who is granted his one wish — that everything he touches turn to gold. The king soon discovers however that his fondest wish has brought a nightmare; he cannot eat his food or play with his children — everything has turned into gold! He is forced to beg to recant his wish. "The moral of the story is that people should be happy with what they have, instead of always wanting more," said sixth-grader Mansour.
This group meets once a week for two hours. During their winter vacation, the boys say they like to continue their studies and enjoy getting together for study groups. Science, math and languages are among their favorite subjects — and doctor, teacher and engineer are the future vocations of choice for most in the group.
Come on, I prod, you must do more during your winter vacation than just study? They smile sheepishly and shyly concede that kite flying is also fun. So is playing cricket. But we love our books, they insist; "we would love to have more books."
The Houston Chronicle, "For local third-graders, knitting was a hobby - until they saw it could save babies a world away; A little yarn goes a long way," January 31, 2007.
WASHINGTON - They started out just wanting to join a club, to gather in the cafeteria before school a morning a week, talk to their friends and learn to knit.
But for 80 third-graders at Westwood Elementary School in Friendswood, the knitting club has become so much more.
About 325 baby hats made at the school - and a quarter-million others donated by knitters and crocheters around the country - make a stop in Washington today en route to expectant mothers in Bangladesh and Malawi who may be able to increase their babies' chance of survival simply by covering their heads for warmth.
And 8-year-old Elizabeth Warwick is on her way to the White House, carrying a message from her classmates in Friendswood to the president of the United States: Learn to knit. Send yarn. Give more money to developing countries so little babies can stop dying.
"The baby hats are really fun to knit," Warwick said before boarding a plane for Washington. "I like blues and purples and violets, but sometimes I'll do grays and browns and different colors so I can send some to girls and some to boys. It's fun and you know other people can really use them."
The "Caps to the Capital" campaign was born last spring when Save the Children released its annual report on the "State of the World's Mothers," pointing out that 2 million babies die every year within 24 hours of birth; 4 million in the first month.
Up to 70 percent could be saved, the report concluded, by simple, inexpensive measures, like encouraging breast feeding, swaddling newborns close to their mothers and putting knit caps on babies' heads to keep them warm.
Grassroots movement
The Warm Up America Foundation, a grassroots movement that provides knitted and crocheted blankets and clothing to hospitals, shelters and nursing homes, sprang into action, organizing knitters in every state in the country. Save the Children agreed to get the baby caps to places where they could do the most good.
The organization doesn't usually collect items to send, mainly because transportation costs are so high, said Save the Children spokeswoman Eileen Burke.
"But there was something about a mom, a grandmother, a Girl Scout here reaching those moms and babies overseas," she said. "The caps are basically a symbol. They represent the package of simple solutions that mothers and babies need, and they are a symbol of American support to do more to save children's lives."
A cause for children
Barbara Gruener, the guidance counselor at Westwood Elementary who started the knitting club with parent volunteers four years ago - and has helped the children donate blankets to hospitals, a prenatal clinic and a nursing home - jumped at the chance to get involved.
The baby cap project was perfect, from a knitting perspective and from a character-building perspective, she said. It allowed students to do a small knitting project, start to finish, to help other kids and to also write their elected representatives about a cause that means something to them.
"My kids were like, `You mean, I could save a baby?' " she said. "That was huge."
The knitting club, she added, has been much more effective in teaching the pupils about compassion and public service than other projects she has tried. Some of her former knitters, now at Bales Intermediate School next to Westwood, have served as mentors for the third-graders, and the third-graders are teaching their younger siblings to knit.
"I love the idea behind food drives, but quite frankly, the food drive wasn't doing much for these kids," she said. "They would get a can of corn out of mom's pantry the day it was due and plop it on the table outside my office. That's nice, but with the knitting club, they've actually made something with their hands. They've struggled through it - maybe had to start over four or five times, but they persevered, and then they give it away to someone who really needs it."
Letters to the president
Since last summer, about 20,000 people across the country - knitting guilds, church groups, even prison inmates - have made about 260,000 baby caps for the Caps to the Capital project.
About 10,000 people, including the students in Friends- wood, also wrote letters to lawmakers and Bush, asking for increased funding for child survival programs around the world, which has remained about $360 million annually.
Today, Warwick and others are to meet with a member of first lady Laura Bush's staff at the White House and with lawmakers on Capitol Hill before attending a reception at the Textile Museum, which will display some of the caps before they leave Washington.
Back in Friendswood, Warwick's fellow knitters are again piecing together blankets and will find homes for them locally. But their minds are clearly still on the babies who will wear their hats.
"I hope it saves at least some of them," said Kiersten Deschner, 9, who made five hats.
In letters to the White House, some young knitters asked President Bush to make every school in the country start a knitting club. Others asked him to send more money to poor countries to save children's lives. Some requested that he send yarn. Some asked that he visit their school.
"Please can you come to Westwood?" asked one. "We will teach you how to knit."
The Connecticut Post, "Students lobby to help world's neediest," February 1, 2007.
WASHINGTON — The House floor was a beehive of activity Wednesday at noon as lawmakers began casting a series of votes to set the budget for the rest of the fiscal year.
Amid the dark suits was a smiling Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, who sat with four young constituents from Green's Farms Elementary School in Westport, Conn., who had come to his office moments earlier to discuss a community service project.
When the vote was called to honor Percy Lavon Julian, the first black chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, Shays passed his voting card to the girls. They slid his card across a scanner to record his vote in the affirmative — a green light lit up next to his name on the giant tote board above the gallery.
Five minutes later, they again cast a vote for Shays — this time in the negative — for the first in a series of votes on the 2006 budget.
"We got to vote!" the girls exclaimed later.
Shays was only too happy to give them a close-up view of democracy in action as well as a quick tour of the U.S. Capitol.
They had come to his office to lobby on behalf of Save the Children and its efforts to reduce the number of infant deaths.
Volunteers across the nation knitted and crocheted more than 270,000 infant caps that Save the Children is sending to Bangladesh and Malawi, which have high rates of newborn deaths. Nearly 17,000 were knit in Connecticut.
Sisters Caroline, 10, and Charlotte Rossi, 7; and Elizabeth,
10, and Katherine Coogan, 8, helped sew pompoms on some of the caps and wrote notes to the mothers who will receive them. They also wrote President Bush asking him to support greater funding for public health programs in poor nations.
Worldwide, 4 million infants die each year before they reach a month old, including 2 million during the first 24 hours of life, nearly all in poor countries. Save the Children wants lawmakers to nearly double spending for child survival programs to $660 million.
Save the Children President Charles MacCormack, who accompanied the girls to Shays' office, said the Caps to the Capital program demonstrates how small efforts can have big impacts on the world.
"For pennies a day, we could save 11 million children a year," he said.
Maureen Coogan and Marguerite Rossi, who lead Brownie Troop 552, said they found out about the program during a tour of Save the Children's Westport headquarters. They decided it would make a good community service project for the "Citizens Near and Far" badge that the third-graders hoped to earn.
"They were too young to knit the caps, but helped by adding pompoms and writing notes," Rossi said.
The Junior Girl Scout Troop 1008, to which the two older girls belong, also decided to participate in the program as part of their Bronze Award project.
"Seeing the work that Save the Children does in poor countries was a real eye-opener for the girls," Rossi said.
After meeting with Shays, the group also called on the offices of Connecticut Sens. Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd.
They met Lieberman in the hallway and told him about the votes they cast.
"The rules are different in the Senate," he said. "I would get penalized if I let you do that."
The Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Lamplighter kids lobby for babies," January 31, 2007.
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton, the former first lady now running for president, gave up her seat on the Senate subway Wednesday so that Michael Feather, 9, of Bartlett, could rest from a wearying day of lobbying.
Clinton, also a senator from New York, told the six kids and two teachers from the Lamplighter Montessori School in Cordova that she was racing to the Senate floor to preside. She beamed when she learned the group was from Memphis and was lobbying for newborns. The kids were carrying some of the 270,000 knit caps being sent to the Third World in the Caps for the Capitol campaign for the charity Save the Children. Clinton wedged into the seat next to Feather for a picture.
"I used to live in Arkansas," she said, her pinched fingers jumping an imaginary Mississippi. "Right across the river. And I love Save the Children."
None of kids knew at first who she was.
The Lamplighter group also met right off the Senate floor and had their picture taken with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. They told him how each had learned to crochet or knit caps for newborns in Malawi and Bangladesh, to keep their heads warm and retain body heat. Alexander thanked them for the work they've done.
Nassem Yousef, 8, cut to the chase: "Do you have a card?" She'd been collecting business cards all day. Said Alexander: "No, but I can give you my phone number." Nassem settled for his autograph.
The youngsters had their picture taken on the Capitol steps with U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who said later, "It makes me especially proud to see young people take a role in making the world a better place to live. They have recognized that child poverty exists, not only in Bangladesh, but in rural parts of Tennessee and are doing something to combat this problem."
Over lunch -- and ice cream with hot chocolate -- in the dining room of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the students and teachers Bonney Haynes and Sharon Brandon, along with Save the Children officials, explained the effort to reduce the 2 million deaths a year of newborns in their first 24 hours on earth.
"Some children are born in plastic tents," said Susanne Bernstein, 9, of Olive Branch.
"Most of the people can't go to school and if they do go they have to cross a bamboo bridge," explained Ashley Buckingham, 8, of Cordova.
"And sometimes they drop their books into the river," Susanne added, gravely.
Each child knitted a cap and wrote a note for the mother who will place it on her child's head. Dylan Beasley, 8, of Midtown, said hers looked like a sun cap, with the sun's rays poking out, and took about two days to knit. Ashley said her note said, "I hope your child treasures this forever." Sutton Hewitt, 8, of Germantown, said her note said, "I hope your baby loves this hat." Nassem said she hopes her pink, soft hat will be passed along "until it wears out."
When Sutton explained that babies, and especially low birth-weight babies, lose most of their body heat through their heads and feet, Feather ("no S; it's not Feathers") suggested they'll come back next year with the Socks for the Capitol campaign.
Everyone laughed.
During their busy day on the Hill, the children also met with U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's staff and with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who told them: "Thank you for coming to my office. You've made my day much warmer by being here."
"Health care needn't always be complicated"
By Laura Ofobike
Dust off the health-benefits primers and get up to speed on your PPOs and PCPs, the PBMs and EOBs, because something says health-care issues are charging up center stage again. It could be that in the next 12 months that any presidential aspirant worth a bumper sticker will have some sort of a plan to fix the system and save countless lives.
President Bush is expected to blow the starter's whistle tonight in his State of the Union address. He will present a plan to reduce the number of Americans who have little or no health insurance. Sen. Hillary Clinton, followed up her presidential announcement this past weekend with a measure to expand the federal health insurance program for children.
I hope these are the promising first signs of a wide-ranging debate that will include not only how we approach the challenges confronting this country but also those that hold back much poorer countries.
Every few years, the same cluster of issues — employers howling about costs, mounting individual debts from hospital bills, high rates of uninsured — captures the political imagination and produces reams of Big Picture policies from think tanks and politicians.
In the months to come, I suspect we'll be wading through a mountain of policy plans on how, individually and collectively, we can get the most out of our health dollars. Yet much in current research reminds us, too, that striking that balance doesn't always depend on elaborate policy initiatives or large amounts of money.
Sometimes, taking simple, low-cost, low-tech steps is all that is needed to made dramatic improvements, saving both lives and money. The reminders around doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals, for example, are the same as you might see in a grade school: Wash your hands well. Soap, water and a little elbow grease may be all it takes to tip the scale toward health or a nasty infection. In the poorer regions of the world, investing in a few well-placed wells and toilets may do more to prevent debilitating cholera epidemics than, say, a shipment of medications after the fact.
It's unfortunate that in a world increasingly hooked on high technology, simple, inexpensive solutions sometimes are overlooked. Another reminder of this crossed my desk last spring.
A rather bulky package arrived in the mail from Save the Children, an international aid organization. The package contained a report on the state of the world's mothers. Among the details was this conclusion: that in the poorer regions of the world, the first 24 hours after birth are the most dangerous for babies. Of the 10 million children under 5 who die every year, the report said, 3 million die within the first seven days. The report mentioned also that very simple practices, such as keeping a newborn's head warm, could save the lives of countless babies.
In the envelope, there was also a colorful little knit cap. It was big enough to fit around my fist and nothing like the tame headwear I've seen local hospitals put on newborns. This was a blaze of reds, yellows and oranges.
The cap was part of a campaign called "Caps to the Capital.'' Save the Children said the idea was the inspired response to the report by thousands of individuals and groups from across America who wanted to help and have volunteered to knit and crochet caps for distribution to newborns in impoverished countries.
The caps have been flowing into the offices of the agency and its partner in the campaign, Warm Up! America. To date, more than 180,000 of them (Ohioans have contributed more than 5,000 caps) have been delivered. Attached to the caps are personal notes from the knitters urging President Bush and Congress to increase support for inexpensive programs for neonatal and maternal care in poor countries. (The groups plan to deliver some caps and notes to the president next week.)
I don't know how many babies are alive today because of a gift of knit caps from a Girl Scout troop or a senior citizen with time on her hands, but the thought in itself is warming. If you have knitting or crocheting skills, you might want to check out the campaign.
Discussions about health care and what governments can and cannot do for their own and other people quickly get complicated, an endeavor most of us are only too happy to leave to the policy heavyweights. And yet efforts such as the ``Caps to the Capital'' campaign reveal the desire of ordinary citizens to be involved in a meaningful way in policies that make a difference.
"Teen picked to ring stock exchange bell"
Ashlei N. Stevens, Staff Writer
Spartanburg Journal Herald — Sunday January 7, 2007
When Wilma Jones lost her job and her home about six years ago, the 49-year-old mother of four wasn't exactly excited to move into Spartanburg Terrace Apartments, now called Crescent Hills.
"I thought I was moving into the 'projects,' " Wilma said. "But in the long run it helped my kids so much. I didn't think it was a good thing then, but I can see the positive changes in my children from when we first moved here until now."
Jones said she's most thankful for the Spartanburg Terrace Tenant's Association Save the Children Program, which enabled her only son, Dominique, to come out of his shell and ultimately become the first member of their family to attend college.
Although Dominique may not have had much money growing up, the sophomore at Benedict College in Columbia is on the pathway to success, and he'll soon set foot in a place where big money is made everyday: Wall Street. Dominque, 19, has been selected to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Monday, which marks the 75th anniversary of the Save the Children Program.
A 2005 Spartanburg High School graduate and product of the program, Jones is the sole representative of the millions of children worldwide that Save the Children has served.
"Dominique is a great kid who has shown a lot of promise and is excited about his future," said Mike Kiernan, Save the Children's director of communications. "He is the classic Save the Children sponsor. He represents the kind of child we've helped over the past 75 years."
Save the Children is in 40 countries worldwide, and the program strives to improve the health and well being of newborns and enhance the education of school-aged children to ensure their livelihood as adults. Dominique says he kind of got pulled into the program after he saw how much his friends, Kendrick Hardy and Julius Williams, where having: taking skating trips, going bowling and skating.
"I looked at is as something fun to get involved in. I never realized its ultimate impact on my life," he said. "They sneak education in, so you're learning stuff and you really don't know you're leaning."
He joined the STTA Save the Children program in 1999, and from then on was actively involved. He served as team leader helping younger kids with homework and serving as a mentor. One year he was elected was president of Save the Children's Youth Council.
"Save the Children really gave him great experiences — things I couldn't afford to do for him," Wilma said. Through the program Dominique and his 20-year-old sister Porshia traveled to Georgia, Washington, D.C., and other places where they met politicians and business leaders like Sen. Hillary Clinton, Black Entertainment Television creator Bob Johnson and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.
"Once I got involved in Save the Children, it was about more than just taking trips," said Dominique, who is studying business and accounting and aspires to work in real estate.
Kiernan said Dominique was selected to ring the NYSE closing bell through a nomination process, and that his drive and ambition set him apart from other nominees. So he'll join Save the Children board members at 4 p.m. Monday to pull the bell's cord.
"I didn't know whether to cry or laugh," Wilma Jones said when she found out about her son's selection. "I was so proud they thought of my son."
"We're so excited they selected Dominique," said Vernon Beatty, area manager of Crescent Hills Apartments. "Of all the children in Save the Children across the country, for them to have selected a child from Spartanburg, S.C., as ambassador, we just want to tell the world about it."
Local program
A retired schoolteacher named Bertha Williams began an after-school program at Crescent Hills Apartments in 1995. She had ties to Save the Children's office in Asheville, so the first official group of kids under the program began meeting in a small room in the leasing office, serving 120 kids on a budget of about $2,000 that year.
Since that time, more than a half million dollars has been put into the program, which has served hundreds of kids at Crescent Hills, Beatty said. There are 25 staff members, mostly volunteers, who work during the school year, and 45 who work during the summer.
"Save the Children is not just for residents here — it's for the surrounding community," said Brenda Lyles, president of the program housed at Crescent Hills.
About 60 kids meet after school each day in the computer lab, which is located at the leasing office. And Spartanburg School Districts 1 and 7 each donated a portable classroom, where the program houses its literacy centers.
"These children could've been written off, could've been another statistic, a drop-out, or raising a family of their own," said Benjamin Wright, media relations coordinator with the local program. "But by providence and the grace of God, they survived. We're saving children that otherwise would've been lost."
Over the next three years, however, the program's budget — which is typically $95,000 — will be reduced and there's a possibility the program at Crescent Hills could be phased out by 2009.
Advantage for students
Staff members with the Crescent Hills program hope the program can be saved so more students like Dominique graduate high school and become successful adults.
"Students should look around and realize they have an advantage over here — we have a program no other apartment complex has," said Randy Murphy, computer lab director.
"The community I live in is looked at very negatively — they call it the 'ghetto' or the 'hood,' but it's actually a good community," Dominique said. "Young people coming out have a lot more to offer than people give it credit for."
For Dominique, who says he's a die-hard Carolina Panthers fan, this will be his first trip to New York.
He says this trip wouldn't be possible without the support of his mom, three sisters Porshia, April, and Shannon, girlfriend Tameka Stripling, and the Save the Children staff at Crescent Hills.
"I'm succeeding in life because of where I came from," Dominique said. "I've been pushed by everyone — even the kids — to do what I do. Everyone in my life has had some type of positive influence and I count my blessings every day."
Ashlei N. Stevens can be reached at 562-7425 or ashlei.stevens@shj.com.
“A little knitting goes a long way for needy infants,”
By Melissa Gagliardi
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) January 1, 2007
Knit one, pearl two, and save a life.
That's the pattern students at Kentucky Country Day School followed as they made more than 100 tiny caps for infants in impoverished areas of the world, where a lack of warmth can cause death.
Their project, Stitch for a Cause, was started at the school four years ago by middle school English teacher Lisa Stringfellow, whom the students refer to as the "Stitch Doctor" for her ability to fix their mistakes.
And there are lots of mistakes, considering many of the students who participated are first-time knitters.
"What do you call these lines?" asked 10-year-old Aleckxis Montelongo, who just learned to knit.
"Mistakes," quipped Stringfellow. "They're not perfect. You just have to do your best and we can make it work."
A hat rack full of colorful tiny caps, some that look like they'd barely fit a closed fist, drew cries of "How cute!" as students filed into the room one afternoon to drop off more hats, each with a note attached telling the mother "Good Luck," or "I hope you like this hat."
A group of girls gathered after school to finish their hats and help get everything ready to be sent to Washington, D.C., for the national program "Caps to the Capital," which distributes the hats through the Save the Children organization.
The girls in the knitting circle talked about movies, gossiped about friends and agreed that it had been fun to watch their male classmates learn to knit, even though they claimed the boys made more mistakes.
"It's a new fad and all the boys are doing it, too," Aleckxis said.
A local business owner donated $2,000 worth of yarn and knitting needles for the project, and people from across the country mailed in knitting needles and other supplies after reading about the project on a Web site Stringfellow set up, www.stitchforacause.org.
While the girls bonded over their knitting projects, they also were learning math skills and improving their hand-eye coordination, said Stringfellow, who learned the skill as a child.
She said she enjoys passing it on to others who may become as passionate about it — if only the students would get permission from other teachers before they spend class time knitting.
One girl admitted to getting into trouble for knitting in Latin class that day, and similar stories followed. When the 100th cap was completed by fifth-grader Valery Kravchuck, 10, the knitters had a mini-celebration, and Stringfellow took her picture holding the cap and posing next to the hat rack.
The knitting lessons were something that stuck with eighth-grader Covington Paulsen, 13, who is helping Stitch for a Cause for the second time. She said that even though she'll be in high school next year, she'll be back to help with the project again.
"It feels good helping people," she said as she stitched a pink flower onto a green hat.
Sixth-grader Taylor Jordan Brantley, 12, was starting on her third hat, a tiny baby-blue cap.
"It's like being able to help the world while still being in middle school," she said.
“Knitting for newborns: Local woman aids relief effort,”
by Robin Smith
The Maryland Gazette, December 30, 2006.
Brooklyn Park resident Mildred Volker doesn't know it, but she's an international child advocate and political activist in cahoots with prison inmates, doctors, business people, cheerleaders and Girl Scouts.
And she thought she was just knitting baby caps.
When the octogenarian signed on with the Linthicum-based Close Knit Group in September to contribute to its effort to knit caps for newborns overseas, little did she know that she was becoming part of a powerful national voice to thwart infant mortality. The global humanitarian organization Save the Children teamed up with the Warm Up America! Foundation on a grass-roots initiative that has seen thousands from all walks of life participate — including prison inmates.
"More than 5,000 knitters and crocheters from all 50 states and U.S. territories have sent in caps and notes," said Eileen Burke, spokesman for Save the Children.
The campaign is an effort to help the 2 million children who die each year in the first 24 hours of life. In the organization's State of the World's Mothers 2006 report, the message that some simple measures could be life-saving — like keeping babies warm with a knitted cap - spawned Caps to the Capital.
Organizers will take the caps to Washington, along with personal notes from the crafters to President Bush, as a call to do more to save the lives of newborns. Save the Children's ultimate goal is increased funding for health programs in the developing world.
But Mrs. Volker's motivation in knitting more than 50 caps is simple. “It was a joy for me because I just think of all the poor little babies," she said.
When an article ran in the Maryland Gazette about the Close Knit Group's participation in Caps to the Capital, Mrs. Volker contacted organizer JoAnne Zoller Wagner offering her help. Could the group supply the yarn?
Every two or three weeks, Mrs. Zoller Wagner has dropped by Mrs. Volker's home to deliver supplies. The longtime county resident, who donated 60 preemie caps to the Red Cross a few years ago, keeps her knitting in a handmade wooden drum and enjoys creating the small hats.
"It keeps my hand out of trouble," joked Mrs. Volker.
Mrs. Zoller Wagner will finish collecting caps this month from other volunteers, and hopes to send 120 to Save the Children on behalf of the Linthicum group.
The county teacher and avid knitter, who also leads knitting clubs for school children and will soon begin a program teaching knitting to women at the Ordnance Road Correctional Facility, understands the basis for the caps initiative.
"Caps and socks were some of the first knitted objects because they were crucial to survival," she said.
Save the Children recognizes the influence that local organizations can have in a national movement.
"The Close Knit Group shows us that knitting needles and crochet hooks can be a powerful tool for saving newborn lives," said Ms. Burke.
To date, 69,000 caps have been sent to Save the Children's headquarters in Connecticut. By Tuesday's deadline, the organization expects to collect nearly 100,000 donations. After a stop in Washington, the cache will be sent to Malawi and Bangladesh, two countries where Save the Children already administers United States-funded health programs.
Caps to the Capital was the first charitable undertaking by the Close Knit Group. But infants closer to home will wear handmade head coverings as well when the club takes on another service project in the new year; donating caps for newborns at Maryland General Hospital.
Mrs. Volker has pledged to continue knitting for babies as long as Mrs. Zoller Wagner keeps bringing her yarn. With more than 60 years of handiwork under her belt, the accomplished knitter isn't ready to stop giving yet.
“Encouraging news from Afghanistan,”
The Seattle Times, December 29, 2006
Experience tells me that optimism is way overrated, but I am purposefully nurturing a rosy glow about a bleak part of the world, Afghanistan.
I want to believe focused efforts to build schools and train teachers in the poorest, least-educated province in Afghanistan stir hope for a better outcome for the whole country.
My dram of confidence comes from recent e-mail correspondence with Suzanne Griffin, a transplanted Seattleite who has worked in Afghanistan since 2002.
Nothing quite attracts attention like bad news, and lately all eyes have returned to Afghanistan. The United States rousted the Taliban government in late 2001 and almost immediately was distracted by the war in Iraq. Over time, troops and money were shifted to the Middle East. U.S. assistance to the country dropped 30 percent this past year.
NATO took over military responsibilities and is trying to build the capacity of Afghan forces, but is losing soldiers and enthusiasm in the face of a deadly Taliban-led insurgency.
Pakistan announced it would plant mines and build fences along its 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan. In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai is livid, but his popularly elected government is largely impotent beyond the city limits.
I last exchanged notes with Griffin in March, and discovered she has a new job and employer, Save the Children USA. Her work with another humanitarian agency was going to send her roving around Central Asia, and she was not ready to leave Afghanistan.
She is managing a four-year, U.S.-funded effort to improve the quality of education from kindergarten through ninth grade, with an emphasis on improving the skills and capacity of school managers, viewed as key to successful classroom instruction.
Griffin relocated from Kabul to Shiberghan, a distant provincial city of 150,000 in the northwest. She oversees 12 demonstration schools, six in Jawzjan Province and six located four hours away by road in Sar-i PulProvince, rated by the World Food Program among the poorest.
Behind all the glum headlines, Griffin finds a lot to be optimistic about. Here is some of what I cribbed from her e-mails. Although only 50 percent of Afghan school-age children are attending school, it is the largest percentage in the past 25 years.
In the midst of two years of bad press about deteriorating security conditions, more roads have been paved and repaired. Consortiums of national aid groups provide better access to health care in rural areas than at any time in the country's history.
Everything sounds headed in the right direction, but my inner pessimist is tweaked by Griffin's detail and candor. She feels comfortable traveling in her new district, but it is in unmarked vehicles — no more proud displays of foreign-aid logos and such — and with Afghani colleagues.
Kabul was bigger with more diversions, but Shiberghan has the luxury of 24-hour electricity and clean air without the endless drone of a city on generators. Nights are quiet and clear up north. An evening out in Kabul ends with a curfew for foreigners, likely gathered at places with armed guards.
Griffin downplays personal security, but readily acknowledges humanitarian efforts and military concerns are interdependent. A secure environment is fundamental to Afghanistan's successful development.
Creation of a safer and secure environment on the way to and from school and in the classroom is part of the strategy to boost school enrollment, especially for girls. A push for community-based schools speaks to the fears of parents who do not want daughters too far from home, or out on the roads with bandits.
Safer learning environments include sanitary latrines and clean water. These are key Save the Children initiatives with government schools. Another helps teachers understand how to run their classrooms without use of corporal punishment.
Griffin is mindful of her surroundings and utterly positive about the accomplishments and potential: "Those of us who have been here since 2002 see enormous gains in the past four years, despite the current security concerns."
Information about donations targeted to the Save the Children program in one of Afghanistan's neediest regions, Sar-i-Pul Province, is available at www.savethechildren.org or 1-800-SAVETHECHILDREN.
A commitment combined with results worthy of support. The roots of optimism.
“Counting African Lives Lost in First Weeks,”
by Celia Dugger
The New York Times, November 22, 2006
More than a million babies die across Africa every year in their first month of life, a tragedy neglected by donor countries and African governments and hidden from view because the deaths often occur in societies where mothers and their babies are secluded after birth and the children go unnamed for weeks, according to a report by dozens of medical and public health experts released today.
“Look at the reaction in the U.S. or the U.K. if even one baby dies, particularly if there is malpractice,” said Dr. Joy Lawn, a lead author of the report, “Opportunities for Africa’s Newborns.” “Families get very upset and there’s a big hoo-ha. In Africa, there’s a taboo around mourning a baby.”
Major international efforts to reduce child mortality from measles, malaria and diarrhea have largely benefited older babies and young children who have survived the trials of being a newborn. The 60 scientists and doctors who collaborated on the report say they hope to bring a new focus to the care of infants in Africa during the first days and weeks of life.
Countries where newborns have the highest risk of dying — among them, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Mali and Nigeria — also have the most easily preventable deaths, according to the report, which was financed by Save the Children, the United States Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization.
Following are some of the most significant findings:
Many of the more than 300,000 babies who die because they are not breathing at birth could have been saved if birth attendants knew a simple resuscitation technique that relies on a mask and plastic bag device that can be sold for as little as $10.
Some 70,000 babies die of tetanus infections that could have been prevented if mothers had been given two 20-cent tetanus shots when they were pregnant.
Many of the babies born prematurely who die could have survived if they had been kept warm and snug against their mother’s chests, skin to skin, and wrapped in place with a cloth.
This technique, called kangaroo mother care, uses the mother’s body heat to care for a small premature baby suffering from low body temperature. It has been found as effective as incubator care, the report said. Lacking an understanding of their babies’ need for warmth, poor mothers often give them cold baths.
Dr. Lawn, a senior researcher and adviser to a project on newborns at Save the Children USA, said it was only in recent years that researchers have analyzed data collected in large-scale surveys, documenting the number and patterns of newborn deaths. “There wasn’t anybody interested to pull the data for newborns,” she said.
The new report breaks down newborn death rates by country and finds that some of the poorest ones have made impressive strides, a sign that even with minimal resources notable improvements can be made. Eritrea, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia have significantly reduced the risk of newborn deaths in recent years.
But there is a long way to go, the report says. Though a majority of newborn deaths occur in the first week of life, most health care providers across sub-Saharan Africa advise mothers to return with their babies for a checkup only after six weeks.
“This is a visit for survivors,” the report said.
This study of Africa, which has the highest rates of newborn deaths globally, builds on a Save the Children report released in May addressing the four million newborn deaths that occur annually around the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which finances Save the Children’s work, years ago identified the gap in attention to newborn health.
In the United States, 4.7 newborns die for every 1,000 born, compared with 66 per 1000 in Liberia, which has the highest rate in the world.
“War and schools”
by Ann LoLordo
The Baltimore Sun, November 25, 2006.
The plea of 16-year-old Gamesh was simply stated: "Please open the school again. The war is between adults, but it affects us children. Both parties are violating our rights." In Nepal, where this teenager lives, a decade old civil war and Maoist insurgency have caused havoc — 20 percent of all primary age children don't go to school. Gamesh's plea — quoted in a report from Save the Children, an independent organization devoted to meeting children's needs worldwide — reflects the reality of so many more children across the globe. In countries where civil strife or natural disaster has disrupted daily life, education is a non-essential, a casualty of war, collateral damage. Forty-three million primary-school age children are not in school because of war or conflict, according to Save the Children.
It's a subject that gets far too little attention except among development specialists, relief and aid workers and children's advocacy groups. But the consequences of children not going to school in developing and conflict-scarred areas extend over time and across generations.
Wars, revolutions, earthquakes, floods and other disasters usually result in the closure, take-over or destruction of schools. Teachers are forced to flee or find other ways to support themselves. Children who are not in school are vulnerable to forced conscription or kidnappings by guerrilla forces.
When international aid organizations and relief agencies arrive on the scene, their primary focus is to provide shelter, food and water. Education should be among those priorities. It's not a choice a family should have to make. The benefits of educating kids, whether in their villages or refugee camps, can be documented. School offers structure to dislocated families; it provides kids with a safe haven and the skills to carry on.
Yet access to education is a problem that goes beyond war and disaster. Save the Children estimates that 72 million children worldwide are not in school. Many countries in the developing world don't provide a public education. And where public schools are available, the costs of fees, supplies or uniforms make school unaffordable. Religious laws and cultural taboos also can be barriers to an education, especially for girls.
When countries, including the United States, backed the Millennium Development Goals, they supported a call for universal primary education and set 2015 as the year to reach it. But without a renewed government commitment to education, the goal will be difficult to reach.
Although development aid for education rose from $5 billion in 1999 to $8.5 billion in 2004 (the most recent statistics available), conflict areas received less than a third of the education aid money distributed to poor countries. Distribution needs to be improved.
Governments also have to begin eliminating school fees, which keep too many children at home. They also have to invest in their educational systems, by building schools and properly equipping them, training teachers and paying them a decent wage. By investing in this way, governments are investing in the future of their countries.
Among the best ambassadors and advocates for a universal primary education are children from Sudan, Colombia and elsewhere who have immigrated here and are flourishing in American schools.
Mercy Aremo, a student at Owings Mills High School, is one of them. At 16, she is an active and engaged sophomore. She is fascinated by world history, plays soccer and is a cheerleader. She escaped a life of poverty and ignorance because her mother, Christine, had the will and means to flee their Sudanese village during the civil war of a decade ago.
In her native Sudan, a girl like Mercy might already be a mother, struggling to provide for her child. She might be fleeing the marauding militias that are routing villages and raping and killing. Mercy has been spared such horror. Like other teens, she is looking ahead to college; an ambition derived as much from the circumstances of her early life as her interests today.
"I want to become a pediatrician," she says. "So I can actually go back and help. In Africa, they lack doctors."
Education is not a privilege; it's a basic human right and efforts to protect and secure that right for children worldwide should be fostered.
“East students knit for newborns,”
by Nick Hanson
The Free Press (Mankato, MN), October 10, 2006
Dylan Beske was easy to spot Tuesday morning. He was one of only two boys among of a sea of knitting girls.
Despite the traditionally un-macho activity, the eighth-grader contentedly twirled a pair of knitting needles because he believed his finished product will have potential to save a life.
Beske and the rest of his East Junior High consumer science class are spending the next week finishing knitting a crop of caps for newborns in developing countries through the national Save the Children foundation. The caps will be sent out as part of a care package designed to prevent infant deaths.
“If (the activity) is for helping people, it’s fun,” Beske said. “I like to help people and this will.”
East family and consumer science teacher Mary Draper started the service project this year and got supplies with an Educare grant. It fits well into the curriculum of her class, which also has a section that teaches kids about character development and self-worth.
Kids are taking the project surprisingly serious, she said. “They are concerned that their hats aren’t going to be good enough,” Draper said.
“If it gets them outside of their little world, it’s good.” Each of her four junior high sections is participating. The goal is to complete about 100 caps.
In addition to the caps, each student will write a letter to the president to demonstrate a need for America to do more to help newborns survive.
Some students — mostly newbie knitters — are trying their best to complete one cap, while others such as Mollie Juberion are making two and maybe even three.
She already knew how to knit and has made plenty of other articles of clothing. But this project is more satisfying than making something for herself, her family or a friend, she said.
“When you’re a baby, you don’t get to choose where you’re born. We’re really lucky,” Juberion said. “I would rather make something and send it off then make something for myself.”
“CRISIS IN CARE; The extensive loss of day care centers could threaten New Orleans' economic recovery"
By Steve Ritea
The Times Picayune, August 1, 2006
With 80 percent of New Orleans' licensed child care centers gone, neighborhoods citywide are lacking a basic service that could impede the city's economic rebirth, according to a study released today.
"Child care is critical to an economic recovery and a recovery in general," said Kate Conradt of the Washington, D.C., advocacy group Save the Children, an international nonprofit that commissioned the study to identify ways to work with state and local leaders to improve child care for working parents.
Before the storm, the city had 15,371 day-care slots at 266 licensed centers, according to the Early Childhood Institute atMississippiStateUniversity, which conducted the study. Now 80 percent of those centers and 75 percent of those slots are gone.
But the problem is not irrevocable.
Thus far Save the Children, working with Chevron Corp. and MSU, has helped rebuild 72 child care centers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said Jeanne-Aimee DeMarrais, who coordinates Save the Children's work in Katrina-affected areas.
The group also is working with officials from the Louisiana Department of Social Services to help identify public and private financing and create a similar plan for New Orleans.
"It has been a priority for this department to shore up the capacity of child care centers, specifically in the New Orleans area," said department Secretary Ann Williamson, who has been working with agencies such as Save the Children and private industry to develop a plan to help child care providers.
University of New Orleans Chancellor Tim Ryan, who has been advising Mayor Ray Nagin on economic development issues, said good-quality day care is critical to any successful economy, and the issue is very much on the mayor's radar.
"You have to have adequate child care to bring out most of the labor force, and that's especially true if you're a city like New Orleans that has a lot of single-parent families," he said. "People can't work if they don't have adequate child care."
Andra Thorpe, who runs the Children's Place, a Lakeview child care center that has since relocated to Metairie, said some families she serves have been driving out of their way to go to her center because they can't find care close to home.
"A lot say they're on every waiting list in the city," she said.That's a common problem, said Judy Watts, executive director of the local nonprofit Agenda for Children."
While a lot of parents are making it work, it's under the hardest circumstances, where they are driving long distances," she said. "And after you drive from home to child care to work, then from work to child care to home again, it puts additional stress on families that are already struggling."
Today's study, in fact, recommends restoring neighborhood child care centers, as well as neighborhood schools, to "simplify schedules and transportation for these fragile families." The study did not examine the state of child care in the suburbs, although Watts said ample capacity exists in all surrounding parishes except devastated St. Bernard, which has only one center. The study did not list specific child care centers that are open or closed.
According to the study, the city still lacks any coordinated plan for returning child care to neighborhoods that need it most. The study says 33 of 61 neighborhoods lost all their licensed day-care centers, while another 19 neighborhoods lost at least some day-care slots. Several neighborhoods completely lacking licensed child care have already shown strong signs of recovery, including Bywater and Broadmoor, while areas such as Central City, Mid-City and Uptown have lost 60 percent or more of their centers, according to the report.
Overall the city's population loss hovered at about 64 percent by January. Estimates from other sources put the city's current population at closer to 50 percent of the pre-Katrina population, or about 220,000 residents. Only 52 centers were open when the study was done between June 15 and July 7. Ten of those participate in the federal Head Start program. That's only about one-third of the Head Start centers that were open before Katrina.
Although the study did not include unlicensed child care services operated in private homes, known as family child care, Watts said the city needs to focus on creating more capacity there.
"Family child care is not coming back fast enough," Watts said. "It can take a year or two to get licensed as a center, but in a few months you can get a family site registered and opened."
Although private residences can care for only up to six children, enough of those providers could go a long way toward filling in gaps, Watts said. About 15 percent of the city's child care services were in homes before Katrina, she said, but now it needs to go much higher. though the state Department of Social Services has attempted to help licensed child care providers by providing repair and improvement grants, Watts said, "we think that the city and the state ought to put some serious focus on making that happen."
Thorpe said finding staff in New Orleans also has been a challenge. "I've been approached by different companies to start child care centers in New Orleans, and while I think I could find space and I think I could get enrollment, I just don't think I could find teachers now," she said. Her center in Metairie, which serves 48 youths, is already short two full-time staffers and one part-time staffer, she said.
At Newcomb Children's Center, which operates on Tulane University's campus and gives preference to the children of faculty and staff, attendance has doubled from 48 pre-Katrina to 97 today." A lot of families' nannies haven't returned, and whatever arrangements they had previously do not exist," said its director, Elaine Joseph.
More financing is needed to get centers reopened and, beyond that, to sustain operations. "The owners and directors of these fragile small businesses will need long-term help to re-create or enhance the quality of their curricula and the overall qualifications of their staff," the report said.
Nancy Freeman of the Institute of Mental Hygiene in New Orleans said centers need not only financing to reopen but also to prepare for a new state-imposed quality-rating system that will provide parents with information about how the centers meet various standards. The MSU study suggested that the new system "could provide new incentives for child care programs in the Katrina disaster area to strive for quality." The report also recommends targeting the neediest families because they have fewer options. "A strategy could be to build on program strengths in predominantly low-income neighborhoods or to target vulnerable families," it says.
“Place Where Displaced Kids Can Play”
by Anushka Asthana
The Washington Post, July 24, 2006
Children who face months or even years living in temporary trailer parks after losing their homes to Hurricane Katrina are set to be given something they desperately need — the chance to play safely — thanks to a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the charity Save the Children that is expected to be announced today.
Secure, well-lighted playgrounds, game rooms, Ping-Pong tables, board games, drama workshops, art groups and the chance to be a Boy Scout or Girl Scout could soon be offered when FEMA opens 20 of its trailer communities and collaborates with experts to convert them into child-friendly spaces.
The agency's managers will work with public and private organizations to ensure that problems are addressed. Alongside clean and safe play spaces outside, double-wide trailers will be brought in as community centers where adults can socialize and learn about job opportunities. Save the Children will run sessions to help families cope with the fact that their lives have been turned upside down. The trailers will also serve as places for kids to have fun.
"FEMA is acknowledging the need," said Mark Shriver, vice president of Save the Children's U.S. programs. "These families are under incredible stress — many have lost homes, jobs and family members and are now living in cramped quarters. We found there were few spaces for families to get together and no facilities for kids to play."
A Save the Children investigation into life inside the trailer communities — to be released today — has revealed a disturbing picture. An assessment of 20 sites in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama has uncovered an array of "physical and social hazards" for children. Many were not attending school — finding it difficult to fit into the new environment and get along with local children.
Residents reported changes in young people's behavior such as boredom, fighting, crying and depression. Many were vulnerable to crime and physical and sexual abuse. Respondents on nine sites said drug abuse and dealing were prevalent.
The charity hopes to use the venture with FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to put in place some of the report's recommendations, which include improving links to schools and creating community spaces inside the communities. Save the Children will spend $2 million on the "Safe and Protective Communities Project," which will start at one of FEMA's largest trailer parks: the Diamond Group Site in Lousiana's Plaquemines Parish, with 450 trailers. FEMA officials said DHS will not provide any funds.
Allowing the charity into the communities "makes sense," said Gil Jamieson, deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery at FEMA. "It is a terrific way to have some normality return to some of the family and kids," he said from his office in Baton Rouge.
The joint venture is not an acknowledgement of difficulties inside the trailer parks, he said. "I don't view them as difficulties. I am in the business of providing housing — I see trailer parks as giving folks a roof over their head that they did not have before." But Jamieson added that anything that can help children play and socialize is welcome.
Save the Children will not only focus on getting children to play but also helping raise their self-esteem. Trained professionals will run "emotional-support sessions to for the children at Plaquemines Parish, which was badly hit by the hurricane. "What they need is a lot of one-to-one attention, self-esteem building and the chance to regain a sense of normality," said Barbara Ammirati, deputy team leader for Save the Children's Katrina response.
She said many are under strain because they moved to unfamiliar surroundings: "This is about trying to ground them. Kids are resilient, but they need support."
