September 2007 Newsletter

Dear International Breast Milk Project Family,

We are excited to welcome Village Life Outreach to the International Breast Milk Project family. Village Life Outreach is a physician-run organization that is dedicated to improving health care, education, and sanitation to impoverished areas in Africa. You can read more about them at www.villagelifeoutreach.org. In addition to funding the Lewa Children’s Home in Kenya, we are planning to help Village Life Outreach provide desperately needed health care for infants in rural Tanzania throughout 2007-2008. We plan to contribute to the construction of a community health care clinic and help fund an on-site health care team.

Because of your generosity, in addition to shipping thousands of ounces of donor milk to iThemba Lethu in Durban, South Africa, we have donated $13,000 to the Lewa Children’s Home in Kenya, another $15,000 for clean water and health care projects in Tanzania, and $5,100 for hospital equipment in Cameroon through Dr. Peter McCormick’s Beryl Thyer Memorial Africa Trust. Finally, thanks to your support, we will be shipping a record-breaking amount of donor milk to Africa that was collected through May 31st – over 55,000 ounces.

All of the funds generated from US donor milk from May 31st through August 31, 2007 will support a new community health care clinic that will serve the Lewa Children’s Home and the surrounding community. Construction is set to begin in early 2008. We will continue to post photos and details about our projects so you can see first hand what a difference your milk and funding is making. You can also read more about our projects by visiting the “What We Do” section of our website.

We are always evaluating opportunities to partner with on-the-ground organizations to help us work toward our mission of improving access to health care for infants in impoverished areas. If your organization is interested in being considered, please email Will at will@breastmilkproject.org.

This month, we are also excited to announce a milestone in our organization’s growth and development. We will now be able to support program management and administration, which ensures that IBMP will continue its work for infants in need. All milk banks have a staff of paid employees, executive directors, and contract employees. Any staff paid employed by our organization will be done so in compliance with non-profit laws, reporting, and standards. We aim to achieve the highest Guidestar rankings with the most efficient administrative-to-program expense ratio in the industry. Once our state and federal reports are filed each year, we will post them to our website for your review.

I want to again thank you for supporting the International Breast Milk Project. Your milk, funding, and support are helping the organization to make a difference for communities in South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, and Tanzania.

Sincerely,

Jill Youse
Founder