Invest in Detroit Breastfeeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Note: This fundraiser took place from April 16, 2020 to May 9, 2020. Click here to view a recap report of the fundraiser.
We are so thankful to all of the generous donors! Your investment in Detroit families during the COVID-19 pandemic is helping to save lives. Thank you so much for your contribution to the #InvestinDetroitBreastfeeding Fundraising Campaign. Thanks for all you do to support breastfeeding families!
Click here to view full list of donors.
Families of color are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In Metro-Detroit, which accounted for 80% of Michigan’s COVID-19 confirmed cases (as of April 15, 2020), Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color (SEMI) continued to provide breastfeeding education and skilled birth and lactation support for families during this crucial time. Breastfeeding is medicine. SEMI’s members know this, and despite not receiving personal protective equipment (PPE), continued serving Detroit families. In the face of these dangers, we put together a peer-to-peer fundraiser to help get them the tools they needed to continue serving families in Detroit. We asked for your help to ensure that the families of Detroit could continue receiving lactation education, accessing lactation support, and providing human milk for their children during this emergency. SEMI needed PPE, sanitation items, lactation supplies, and monetary contributions to support lactation providers on the front line and ensure that they could continue to serve families in Metro Detroit.
Click here to learn more.
Why Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color (SEMI)? SEMI is doing frontline work in the face of systems that are broken and leading the way statewide to continue supporting breastfeeding families in Detroit through the pandemic. SEMI’s members are trusted in their community to provide professional support from within the local community. To quote their members, “We are the families we serve.” SEMI provides breastfeeding education and skilled birth and lactation support for families in the Metro-Detroit region. Their International Board Certified Lactation Consultants provide consultations with families to protect, support, and promote breastfeeding in the face of COVID-19, while addressing fears from within the community about birth and infant feeding options.
Click here to learn more about SEMI.
What were the donations used for? In order to continue seeing families, SEMI needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and other sanitation items as well as lactation supplies such as breast pumps and nursing supplies. We joined with SEMI to provide financial support and the material donations they needed to do their work. Monetary contributions directly supported paid compensation for their work in addition to the necessary lactation supplies they provided families such as breast pumps and kits both manual and electric, nipple shields, and scales. The following donations of supplies were also accepted: N-95 masks, foot covers, hair covers, safety glasses, gloves, disinfectant cleaning supplies, and hand sanitizer. Your support was crucial for continued birthing and breastfeeding support for Detroit families in the midst of this deadly health pandemic. Human milk is one way to safeguard the future of Detroit’s families both during and after COVID-19.
Click here to learn more.