"The road to success is not crowded. Because while most are looking for ways to take, the truly successful people are finding ways to give. With a giving attitude, every situation is an opportunity for success."
- Unknown
I remember being 5 or 6 years old, living in Taiwan and seeing little half naked barefooted children, dirty, running around in the streets in packs. I was on a bus, clean, fed, well dressed, shoes on my feet and headed to school. That memory has stayed with me my whole life. I was a young child. Our memories from when we are little stay with us stored in our brain. Some of these memories are stronger than others because they create a deep feeling in us. Or we see something out of the ordinary for what our own personal experience is.
My adult life I have spent teaching children. Loving them, caring about the development of the students in my care.
I have raised my own two sons. Dedicated my time and energy to them growing and giving them all I could give.
Now that I have mostly accomplished that goal, my eyes began to turn to what I could do next.
I read an article about a woman Caroline Kunitz, a parent at my school, who with a partner had started LA Diaper Drive. Caroline and a friend started the LA Diaper drive to collect diapers and distribute them to organizations that support low income families.
I learned that women on public assistance cannot use food stamps to buy diapers for their babies and that these babies sometimes stay in the same diaper all day.
That broke my heart. These babies didn’t deserve that kind of beginning to their life here on this planet. No baby does.
And yet the system set up to support them (public assistance) was neglecting an important facet of having a very small child. Keeping their bottom clean.
I couldn’t imagine not being able to buy diapers for my sons or anything else they required for their growth and development. Not that they had silver spoons in their mouths or got everything they wanted. They didn’t. But they were kept clean and fed everyday.
It should be a right not a luxury for every incoming human on this planet to have this basic care. For children to be well fed and kept clean. To have diapers, medical care, dental care, vision care. Children in my opinion should never be turned away from any doctor’s office. And their mothers should have access to basic necessities for their children, diapers, clothing, food.
We can help each other. I donate some of my time to helping
other people less fortunate than myself ( I don’t have that much, but I have a heart and care). I care about babies.
If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.
Check out this: diaperdrive.com
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| The Heart watercolor on watercolor paper 2011 |
Someone asked the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), "What is the first sign you look for, to tell you of an ancient civilization?" The interviewer had in mind a tool or article of clothing. Ms. Mead surprised him by answering, a "healed femur". When someone breaks a femur, they can't survive to hunt, fish or escape enemies unless they have help from someone else. Thus, a healed femur indicates that someone else helped that person, rather than abandoning them and saving themselves. Isn't that what we in philanthropy are all about? Healing femurs of one sort or another?
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