Summer/Fall 2008 Newsletter

"What the heck do you expect me to do? Dump my milk down the drain when there are babies dying of malnourishment in Africa?"

I was reading back through some of my old journals and came across a conversation I had with a friend of mine who thought the idea of sending donor milk to Africa was not worth it.

Every single day in Africa, on a scale unimaginable, infants are dying of malnourishment and being left in the streets, in garbage dumps, and on the doorsteps of hospitals. Despite this fact, there will always be those who will question why we help and say that it is not worth it. These same people will say that infants in Africa should be able to find their donor milk locally and that we should stick to helping babies here in the US.

When the recent earthquake struck China, or when the tsunami hit Indonesia, did we ask, "Do we really need to send food and money? Wouldn't it be best if we kept our resources here in the US? Is it really worth our time and effort to help these people when we could be helping our own?"

We need to treat the crisis in Africa and other developing countries with the same sense of urgency and perspective as we do every other tragedy. We need to take responsibility for the infants in need, regardless of their location on a world map.

In a perfect world, enough milk would be available from healthy moms in every community worldwide. The simple fact is that there are just not enough healthy moms with extra milk to match the needs of this number of infants - not by a long shot. In some areas, 20-40% of the population is already infected with HIV in Africa. Over 15 million infants and children have already been orphaned. Not to mention the lack of facilities, electricity, clean water and basic infrastructure to make local milk donations possible.

I will absolutely work to raise funds and find ways to build healthcare infrastructure, local milk banks, and efficient, longer-term solutions to help infants get donor milk in Africa. This is a crucial part of being a part of the bigger picture. But until those plans reach scale and are sustainable, I will not sit around and wait, patting myself on the back because I attend a yearly meeting on global health or read a book by Paul Farmer or theorize about how things should be. Infants should not be dying of malnutrition.

Instead I am working every day to get donor milk to those in emergent need - to help protect them from things that we don't have to worry about here in the US, like dying of starvation or water-born illnesses. I am committed to providing help where it is urgently needed, regardless of boundaries drawn on a map.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who are not willing to look the other way - those of you who are donating milk, volunteering your time, sending emails in support, and spreading the word. Thank you for joining me in this fight to help infants suffering from the HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, disease, and poverty crisis in Africa have access to life-saving donor milk.

Sincerely,

Jill Youse
Founder