Helping Mums in Need

Hello my lovely audience and a Happy Mother's Day for all of you who are celebrating today. I know a lot of people are going to be talking today about what makes a mum, what it takes to be a mum, single mums, mums to angel babies, mums to fur babies, and mums in heaven. While all of these are wonderful things to talk about, I wanted to take a different approach and speak about someone who helps mums.

There are millions of organisations around the world who help mums in need. This is a good thing for women who are in situations of domestic violence, refugees, homeless, victims of natural disaster and any other terrible situation you can think of that would prevent a mother from being able to provide a safe environment for her children. The one organisation I am most familiar with, and the one I have been following closely since not long after Miss K was born is St Kilda Mums. They are a not for profit organisation which has provided baby goods for families in need since 2009. Of course despite their name they also help dads, because they believe all parents deserve a helping hand. I spoke about them recently on my Facebook page to highlight the donation drive they were currently partaking in to provide toiletries and personal supplies to mothers in need. At last count they had received over 130 gifts from very generous people, all complete with uplifting messages to be given to the mums. 

But this one donation drive doesn't even scratch the surface of what they do over at St Kilda Mums. They take donations of second hand baby goods, repair them, clean them, inspect them and make sure they are still safe to be used and then re-home them with parents who cannot afford to buy simple necessities like cots, prams, car seats, change tables, you name it. The volunteers who work for St Kilda Mums work tirelessly to provide as much as they can to parents in need, unfortunately there is always more demand for baby goods. There is always a waiting list of patient parents who desperately need supplies for their babies, and the volunteers work their hardest to get through their list as quickly as they can.

While it is great that they help parents in need, I feel it is important to highlight the impact the work they do has on the environment as well. A lot of times these good would end up in the hard rubbish because second hand stores usually do not have the resources available to ensure second hand baby goods are safe enough to resell. By repairing and then re-housing these items, organisations like St Kilda Mums are reducing the amount of rubbish we already have polluting our earth. This fact alone makes them heroes in my eyes, but what they do with them once they pass muster again just makes them super heroes.

So if you have some pre-loved baby or children's items that you aren't going to use any more, before you chuck them to the tip, see if you can't donate them to a family in need. If you would like to help but find yourself completely out of baby goods, they also accept cash donations which help purchase brand new items, and also pay for the repairs on pre-loved furniture. There is also currently a huge need for warm coats for children, just in time for another of our horrible Australian winters.  For more information, and to see some of the stories of the families St Kilda Mums have helped, check out their website here. If you would like to see if there is an organisation closer to you for donations, they also have a page which lists sister organisations both around Australia and the world. You check that out here.

Well while I could go on and on all day about St Kilda Mums and all the awesome things they do, I now have to search for my Mother's Day gift with my eyes closed. (Seriously those are the instructions I have been given.) so if you'll excuse me I'm off to bump into every wall in my house for an hour or so. Have a wonderful day to all the mums out there, whether your kids live at home and drive you up the wall on a daily basis, or are all grown up and only call you when they need something, or even if it isn't Mother's Day where you are, you are all awesome and deserve a great day today.