Spring 2008 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

I often get asked, "How did you ever think to send your milk to Africa?"

It started with just a stir in my belly. The thought of any baby not having enough nourishment to survive while my freezer was overflowing with hundreds of bags extra breast milk just didn't seem right.

Then, while on a flight home to visit my family, I came across a few paragraphs in a book entitled: "There is No Me Without You" by Melissa Faye Green that would forever change my life. The following passage - its shocking statistics, and scope - struck me then and now. Green writes:

"Twelve million orphans today. Twenty-five million orphans tomorrow...The ridiculous numbers wash over most of us. This is happening in our time? We, who have read the histories of the Armenian genocide and of the Holocaust...find ourselves safely tucked away. We may feel a sad tug of common cause with human misery on the far side of the Tropic of Cancer, but we are disconnected from it by a thousand degrees of space and time. This is true even in the hardest-hit countries, because even in the highest-prevalence countries of Asia and Africa, there are comfortable citizens-including elected leaders-keeping their hemlines above the rising waters.

How can the rest of us-normal citizens, steering along our paved streets between home and school, work and playground, mall and hardware store, holding open the front door with a foot while maneuvering inside with the mail, the grocery sacks, the purse, a paperback, the children's backpacks-how can the rest of us break through?

...In the coming months and years, I would learn that-just as there is no blood test to identify who will jump into the fray-there is no simple biographical arc either. No resume can predict why this man or woman, at a safe remove suddenly announces, 'This is my fight.'"

From that point forward, I decided that I couldn't sit still any longer. This would be my fight, too.

A generation of moms is being erased by the HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, disease, and poverty crisis. Over 15 million babies and children are being left behind in Africa. Donating milk to Africa is not the answer to the crisis, nor is it going to save the world. But it does shine a light on what we can do to help with the resources that we have.

It is easy to become paralyzed because the world's problems are so enormous that we are not sure where to begin. It is easy to feel helpless when we can only make small efforts with minimal results. However, our organization provides moms with the opportunity to take the first step toward making a difference, just by opening their freezer.

I want to thank each of you who have decided to make this your fight. You have done this by donating milk, volunteering, or becoming involved in your own way. The best example of this generosity of spirit and boldness in belief comes from West Babylon High School in New York. A teacher with a passion for helping HIV/AIDS infants in Africa and an inspired student who will attend New York University's film school next year, created a mini-documentary of their personal contribution to the fight against inadequate nutrition and the global HIV/AIDS crisis. In the process, the community of West Babylon, led by one teacher and one student raised over $10,500 for the cause.

www.breastmilkproject.org/video

If you have an idea, talent, passion, or resource, let us know on the Brainstorming section of our website. No idea is too small, too insignificant or too outlandish. After all, this organization started from one idea that most people thought was too difficult and too impossible to even try.

You can also get involved by supporting the organizations that support us on the Shop section of our website.

You can even make a simple cash donation.

The size of your involvement or contribution is not important. It is the power of your commitment and passion to join with others as we do what we can with what we have to make the world a little better for those in need.

This is my fight. I think about this challenge every day when I wake up, when I go through my daily routine and when I lie down to sleep at night. It keeps me going. I hope you join us and together we can make a difference.

Jill Youse
Founder
jill@breastmilkproject.org