The purpose of starting Lil Helper Cloth Diapers was to promote the use of more sustainable diapering practices. In conjunction with that, our mission with Baby Do Good is to give 1 brand new cloth diaper to a family in need for every 3 cloth diapers we sell.
We decided that we would limit these cloth diaper donations to the USA & Canada only. More than knowing where we wanted our “donated” diapers to land, we know where we don’t want them to go.
We don’t want our donated cloth diapers to go to Africa or Asia.
These are the reasons that support our decision.
Diapers Are Not On Their Priority List
Diapers, cloth or disposables, do not feature on the list of priorities, of any charity working on the ground in either Asia or Africa.
Parents and families in impoverished countries have a lot of other needs that are more pertinent than diapers. Employment, clean water, nutritious food, healthcare, education, security, sanitation and decent living conditions would far outweigh the need or want for one-size waterproof cloth diapers.
Already High Use Of Cloth Diapers
Having grown in India, I can personally testify that developing countries like India or China already have a high rate of cloth diaper use.
Taken 7 Years Ago in India – My Niece Wearing a Cloth Diaper Made From Curtains
Traditionally diapers are made from old cotton bed sheets or anything else as long as it won’t hurt the child and the material in use can take some abuse. I have seen kids in my own family wear diapers made from old curtains and such.
Disposables diapers are a luxury item in developing countries and used mostly by the aspiring middle class or upper class families, especially while traveling. Donating cloth diapers in societies that already have highly sustainable diapering practices would be an oxymoron.
On the other hand, only a tiny fraction of the parents in North America choose to cloth diaper their children. Baby Do Good wants to help the willing, but not able, part of that population to exercise the choice of cloth diapering.
Do Developing Countries Even NEED Cloth Diapers?
The need for a commodity is established by its availability, ease of access and usefulness. Therefore, medication, food, housing and education always trump toys and diapers. Giving cloth diapers to countries where kids are taught Elimination Communication (EC) and are cloth diapered, would be wasteful. In our opinion and folks that are informed (far more informed than yours truly) in the area of international aid- cloth diapers would qualify for “bad aid“.
You Can’t Compete With Free
Feeding things into a fragile economy, like that of Africa, might do more harm than good.
Maybe there is already a group of resourceful women who earn a livelihood by stitching diapers for the village. A load of free diapers in a small community would dry up her business and she would have to shut shop. And, for whatever reason, if we cannot satisfy the need for diapers in the coming months or years; the recipients of our “generosity” would be out of options to obtain diapers because the local diaper lady is also defunct.
I understand that the above situation is hypothetical but with what I have read about Africa and personally know about India, a situation like this is not far from the truth.
Learning From The Mistakes of Others
There is already evidence of the unintended consequences of donations in Africa, where the high influx of used clothes from the west has destroyed 50% of the clothes manufacturers. The destruction of the garment-manufacturing sector translates to job losses in the thousands. This eventually creates a society that is less prosperous and more dependent on Western aid- the complete opposite of what the donations were meant to do. We at Lil Helper would hate to contribute further to this problem.
Currently we are a boot strapped organization and with our limited resources can neither quantify nor confirm the impact our diapers would have on the delicate economy of a teetering village.
We Want To Sleep Well At Night
Frankly, participating in a photo op with a malnourished African child with us handing over a bunch of our diapers would get us some buzz and strengthen our image as a “caring” company. It might even encourage a few customers to spend more money on our diapers- money that they would have spent on another brand. Sales might pick-up a bit because everybody wants to help the guy that helps poor children. But knowing in our hearts that the same child would be far better served if we could provide him with a vaccination would keep us up all night. I am sure that you wouldn’t be comfortable doing that either.
So the obvious question is- Why not provide vaccinations to those African kids? We are not experts in providing aid to impoverished people. We never claimed we were. We do not know their most immediate needs. There are people on the ground doing a splendid job already. We will do our best in the meantime to make sure we can help and influence the people who are in need here.
In comparison, knowing that a batch of Lil Helper Diapers will help save a ton of money for a struggling family or single mother in your neighborhood and prevent 6000 disposables from clogging landfills will ensure a good night sleep for all involved.
I know this is a recurring theme throughout our blog, from choosing our suppliers to providing customer service, but we like to sleep well.
What If You’re Wrong About This?
Won’t be the first or last time we are wrong about something. As with all things that we’ve been wrong about- we’ll come out, admit our mistake and do our best to fix it.
Most of the decisions we make with the day-to-day running of Lil Helper Cloth Diapers are based on common sense, best judgement and the over arching knowledge that we are doing no harm to anybody. This decision was no different.
Knock Some Sense Into Us
If you’ve anything to suggest to us in terms of what we could do with our Baby Do Good donations or other aspects of our company- do tell. Or if you have better knowledge than what we are working or equipped with- please share below in the comments section or e-mail us at babydogood@lilhelper.ca. You can also join us on Facebook or Twitter!
I really enjoyed your post. Very honest and well-researched. It’s good to know that your good intentions will actually have good and tangible results!
Also in africa alot of the reason we do not donate very new very Nice items is because people will literally kill each other over these items We send shoes at the church but we underline USED shoes because local tribes and such can get murdered over shoes because they will know they are from Americans heads up they hate us or they want them or they feel as though they should have them. Would be a shame for a mother and child to be killed over a Adorable Piece of Fluff but that is kinda the mentality over their Good POST
Kudos to you and your company for putting it out there! With so many families in need in our homeland donating diapers to them is a spectacular idea!
I think that was well put together, as Americans/Canadians we are guilted sometimes to give to 3rd world countries. And we do and thats perfectly fine. But there is a problem with ignoring what is in your own back yard as well. I am all for aid to those in need but like you said a donation of cloth could help a family or single mom. even when buying the cheapest disposables it adds up to around $100 a month. thats $1200 a year that can go to food, clothes and other things the family will need. I think its great that you are dontating “local” we often think that being in our countires (USA/Canada) that we are all taken care of, and sad to say some are just as bad off as in poorer countries.
Enjoyed this post, especially you mentioning Elimination Communication. If a child doesn’t even need a diaper, why give them one?
Thank you for keeping the people in our own country in mind when donating. So many times people think of other countries to donate to fully forgetting that there are many poor here too.
Great post, and something I had never really thought of! I’m really impressed with your sustainability focus and business practices!
Celeste
U guys r doing a splendid job … Keep up the good work …
Wow, you brought up a lot of points that I hadn’t heard of before! Quite a lot of new food for thought!
Excellent post!
While I certainly applaud those who donate overseas, I think that sometimes we forget (or don’t want to acknowledge) there are so many needy people right in our own cities. In most cases, it’s far more efficient for those of us who have goods to donate to help those close to us rather than send the goods overseas. Good post -thanks for sharing.
I agree with the previous posts!!
Great job with the donations & the reasoning behind it!
Love that it goes back to ppl here in our neighborhood that really need them!!
Your attention to long term effects is awesome
I love this! It’s so good to know that you are dedicated to helping those that we may actually come in contact with on a daily basis. As others have already said I applaud helping other countries that need it when we can, but it’s so sad to see people around us here that need it but aren’t getting it.
I love this post! So informative! It makes a lot of sense and gives you a lot to think about
This is pretty much exactly the same reason we have our Operation Bumz Child and donate to local charities that are already dealing with a well established need.
I stay in Africa am black and use disposable diapers for my children. To make my point even clearer i stay in Zimbabwe and not everyone is poverty stricken so before you publish such kind of things it’s better for you to talk to people who actually live in the places you want to write about. Thank you!