STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) – Beverly Stevens, a 67-year-old retired nurse, stays up to the wee hours of the morning knitting baby caps. She can’t stop stitching, determined to save lives.
The Ohio woman is among the volunteer knitters around the country who are planning to send thousands of baby caps to developing countries.
The grassroots campaign comes after a global report on newborn mortality in May found that about 4 million babies die in their first month of life, including about half of those in the first 24 hours. Simple measures, such as knit caps to keep babies warm, could help save many of those lives, according to the report by Save the Children in Westport.
“It seemed like such a simple satisfying way to help somebody else,” Stevens said. “I’m touching something that’s going to touch a baby, a mother who I never met.”
Save the Children, which is working on the initiative with the Warm Up America Foundation, set a goal of enlisting 75,000 knitters. The caps will be sent to Washington D.C. by January and then to Malawi, Bangladesh and possibly other countries, said Eileen Burke, a spokeswoman for Save the Children.
“We felt this was an incredible opportunity to connect women in the U.S. with women and babies overseas,” Burke said.
Stevens has recruited some 20 volunteers alone, though she’s still trying to convince her husband. She sat by frustrated over what to do when Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters struck.
“I want to do something more than send money,” Stevens said.
Wilma Seelye, a retired teacher from Goleta, Calif., has made 13 caps since reading the report. Her grandchildren are helping to make pompoms for the hats.
“What a huge deal to save a life,” Seelye said. “The world politics is so huge – to change the causes of poverty and death, I can’t do that.”
Volunteers also will be asked to send personal notes with their caps to elected officials urging more funding for health programs in developing countries.
“We know Americans, including knitters and crocheters, care about saving the lives of newborn babies in the developing world,” said Charles MacCormack, president and chief executive of Save the Children. “This effort gives them a way to act. By making a cap, they can help us save a life. By using their voice, they can help us save millions.”
Seelye has a habit of sending post cards any way to the president to call his attention to hunger in Africa and other causes.
“My hope for this project is that the people that receive these caps will be touched to know people care about their existence,” Seelye said. “Maybe that will help them endure.”
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Details of the campaign can be obtained by calling (800) 728-3843 or on the Net:
www.savethechildren.org
www.warmupamerica.org
AP-ES-07-14-06 1200EDT
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