Give Parents the Gifts of Baby Supplies and Advocacy (and Love)
This article is part of Times Opinion’s Holiday Giving Guide 2021. For other ideas on where to donate this year, please see the rest of our guide here.
Though I’ve gone on record as a holiday gift hater, there is a shining exception to this: money given to organizations that help parents. In the midst of another Covid surge, and as some communities recover from extremely destructive tornadoes, coming to the aid of struggling parents is even more essential this December.
For some mothers, diaper need can cause as much anxiety as food or housing insecurity. And diaper need has gone up since the beginning of the pandemic. According to one study, around one third of parents struggle to afford diapers, even before Covid. That is why I set up a monthly donation to the National Diaper Bank Network, a nonprofit that helps distribute diapers and other baby supplies to parents in need.
The Tender Foundation also donates diapers and wipes to single mothers in the Atlanta area. Additionally, it provides emergency bill pay assistance and grocery assistance to moms in need — especially important during the holiday season.
Maternal mortality, particularly for Black mothers in America, is a crisis we need to solve. The maternal mortality rate in our country is worse now than it was a quarter-century ago, and “Black women are three to four times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as their white counterparts,” according to a 2018 New York Times Magazine story by Linda Villarosa. The statistics continue to go in the wrong direction — maternal mortality was worse in 2019 than it was in 2018.
4Kira4Moms was founded by Charles Johnson IV, whose wife, Kira, died shortly after giving birth in 2016. The organization is an advocate for legislation to help ensure better maternal health in the United States. Every Mother Counts, founded by the model Christy Turlington Burns, works in the United States and a handful of countries abroad to help women get better care during and after their pregnancies, and is also an advocate for maternal-health legislation.
Finally, I’m a huge fan of A Better Balance, a legal organization that works to protect and advance the rights of workers who are also caregivers. It has a free and confidential legal help line in English and Spanish that helps workers understand their rights. The Center for WorkLife Law does similar and important work.
Tiny Victories
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This newsletter is part of Times Opinion’s Holiday Giving Guide 2021. If you are interested in any organization mentioned in Times Opinion Giving Guide 2021, please go directly to its website. Neither the authors nor The Times will be able to address queries about the groups or facilitate donations.
