Palmer lends a helping hand

CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

A church humanitarian program to gather supplies for orphans in Djibouti, Africa, has grown into a communitywide effort known as Operation Baby Bundles.

Volunteers are collecting items for newborn kits, hygiene kits and school kits, which will be shipped to Djibouti in late May. There is a tremendous need for the supplies, organizers said.

The program began after a phone call between Dona Irvine and a friend, whose husband, Capt. Mark A. Slik, is in the U.S. Air Force and is stationed near Djibouti.

"I was talking to her just the other day, and she said Andy told her that 70 babies were born in a clinic in one day last week, and there's only one doctor in the whole clinic," Irvine said. "The conditions are so unsanitary there, too."

The shortage of medical care and rough conditions have led Djibouti to have the highest infant/maternal mortality rate in Africa. Schools are in disrepair, and hospitals often have no supplies or medical professionals. More than 700 babies are born each month, many of them ending up in the orphanages immediately after birth.

The U.S. military is helping at orphanages, although specific details can't be disclosed, Irvine said, for fear of making locations future targets.

Irvine started Operation Baby Bundles in her church, the Palmer Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it has grown to include several groups in Palmer. The Palmer High School National Honor Society is collecting supplies for school kits to send to Djibouti, and the Swanson/Sherrod PTA is helping with donations to cover the shipping, which will cost approximately one dollar per pound.

The goal is to ship 100 newborn kits and 100 school kits. Each newborn kit includes a receiving blanket, four cloth diapers, a pair of baby socks, four diaper pins, two regular-size bars of soap and a newborn layette gown. School kits include four pencils, a pencil sharpener, a box of colored pencils, a pair of blunt-nosed scissors, notebooks and a cloth bag made of heavy fabric.

"We started out doing it just in our church, and it kind of just has grown from there," Irvine said.

People who want to donate items can do so at the Palmer Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for newborn kits and at Palmer High School for the school kits. Donations for the shipping costs can be made by mailing checks to Swanson/Sherrod PTA, 690 Gulkana St., Palmer, AK 99645.

Other items that are needed are hygiene kits, which consist of combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and hand towels; cloth diapers and pins; shoes, including flip-flops and sandals; children's clothing, which should be new or gently used; and linens. One of the biggest needs is for hand sanitizer.

"Animals are a big part of their economic structure there, and the military tries to take care of the animals to keep that economic structure in place," Irvine said. "But the conditions are really unsanitary, and they need hand sanitizer so they can keep working with the animals and the people and not worry about disease or illnesses."

The generosity of Palmer isn't going unnoticed. The wife of a U.S. Embassy employee there e-mailed Irvine and thanked her for the effort.

"Thank you for your interest in helping here. That is really wonderful that you and your presidency are willing to help. There is so much need here. I am deeply saddened by the tragedy in Asia with the tsunami, and yet there is such a desperate humanitarian crisis here every day," wrote Rachel Dorsey. "The U.S. military has done so much, there are other aid organizations as well, just that the need is so great."

The deadline for donating supplies is May 13. The goods will be packaged on May 21, and shipped immediately thereafter.

For more information, interested people can e-mail operationbabybundles@hotmail.com.