Can you believe it’s been a whole 8 months since Blog it for Babies, the blogger-led fundraising initiative to raise money and awareness for Save the children’s Build it for Babies appeal ?! Time flies ey?
Today I have a short guest post and vlog from Alex Bono, Save the Children’s digital fundraising manager who was at the Save the Children blogger’s conference last year and who led on digital fundraising (including getting the virtual clinic built online) for the Build it for Babies project. I thought folk might be interested to hear how the project is going ….
“In December I went to visit Baby Nirob and his family. You probably remember Nirob from our Build it for Babies campaign last year. Nirob’s Mum Shipra had already lost three other children and when my colleague Scott met Nirob he was also very ill. All she wanted was to be able to take him to a doctor. What our Build it for Babies campaigned aimed to do was to raise £1 million pounds to build 7 clinics to help Mums and babies like Nirob & Shipra.
Well, we did it! Supporters all over the country joined together to help us reach our £1 million pound target. We couldn’t have done it without brilliant support from Annie & the blogging community.
Nirob’s village will be getting the 2nd of our 7 clinics and this visit showed me just how much of a difference these clinics will make for everyone in the village.
Seeing Nirob with his mum was a really sobering experience. It was my first trip to the field and I felt torn between deep sadness about the conditions that so many mums and babies find themselves in and wonder at how the smallest things can have such a huge impact.
The remoteness and difficulty of getting any services to these communities really struck a chord with me and making the trip from Dhaka over 2 days made it come to life in a way photos never could. I also got to visit a clinic that is already built in another community where we spent a morning with the staff and got to sit in on patient visits. With such a short visit I didn’t expect to see much, but in reality we saw the future for our clinics. Clean, safe, well run places where families can get the care and advice they need. It was without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip. Seeing healthy mums and babies was really exciting and made me see how simple things can actually change people’s lives. I can’t wait for construction on our clinics to start. We really couldn’t have done it without the support of so many people, so I wanted to say a huge thank you to you from both Save the Children and on behalf of Shipra and baby Nirob.”
I'm Annie and I live in the depths of the New Forest. Mother to many, wife to one, blogger, creative type, lover of real books and a bit of a lush.
Wow, that is brilliant to hear feed back on, well done you for getting everyone organised on yur tour and so glad to have been a little part of blogging for babies x
Alexander Residence recently posted..Boosting children’s memory and language using photobooks
thank you so much for all your help with it and hard work organising the Nottingham leg – it was great fun!
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
Thank you for posting this Annie – it is fabulous to hear how much all our efforts have achieved – really makes it feel worthwhile
Actually Mummy… recently posted..Apologies
I totally agree with you my hairy friend, it’s nice to follow up on these things
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
Small things done here make such a huge impact there. Really good to read follow up.
So true Gemma, we take so much for granted here that it’s hard sometimes to appreciate how big an impact these things can have on those that need help the most x
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
Yes, the smallest things do have a huge impact, great to see things moving.
Thanks Wendy and many thanks to Alex for letting us know x
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
That’s truly wonderful news. I am so glad to have been part of it – that brought a real lump to my throat. Well done Annie, a catalyst as ever, making a real difference. X
Anya from Older Single Mum recently posted..There’s a Mouse in the House.
Oh behave you, it’s all the community spirit – I really do believe that we all inspire each other in many ways x
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
This is fantastic, so amazing to hear what has been happening. Well done Annie
Amanda recently posted..Storing Children’s Artwork
Nice to have some good news to report
Mammasaurus recently posted..Saturday is Caption Day!
Brilliant! Lovely to hear an update! Well done! x
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