Teen and Teacher Travel to Bangladesh to Deliver Caps
 |
| Mother Ataur Begum holds her seven-day-old daughter Ayesha. Ayesha is wearing a baby cap provided through Save the Children's Caps to the Capital program, a grassroots effort to engage American knitters and crocheters to use their skills and voice to advocate for increased federal funding for maternal and newborn health and sruvival. |
The final phase of the Caps to the Capital project came to a close in March when two knitters from Minnesota presented the first of more than 200,000 baby caps to moms and babies in Bangladesh. Save the Children selected Mary Draper, 8th grade teacher from Mankato, Minn., and her student, Mollie Juberien, 14, to travel to Bangladesh to deliver the caps on behalf of all the knitters and crocheters in the U.S. who were part of the effort.
Draper introduced the project to her students back in October, and both she and Juberien, along with a few other students, attended the Caps to the Capital event held in Washington D.C. in January, to help promote maternal and newborn health in developing countries.
"This is definitely the experience of a lifetime! I am so excited and incredibly honored to get to go on this trip and deliver the caps," said Juberien. The trip marked the first time she had traveled outside of the United States.
The week in Bangladesh began by traveling north of the capital Dhaka, to the area of Sylhet. Many of the hundreds of villages in this area are isolated geographically, especially during the rainy season. Sylhet has one of the worst newborn mortality rates in the country, and is home to the ACCESS program, a maternal and newborn health project funded through USAID through which Save the Children will distribute the caps. Over two days, Draper and Juberien, along with Save the Children staff, went to five villages to deliver caps.
Save the Children staff translated the meaning of the caps to the new mothers and fathers, explaining that the caps are gifts from the American people who care about improving newborn health in Bangladesh.
"I got to give one of my caps at the first village that we went to," said Juberien. "To put my cap on the baby's head and get to know that I would be helping the precious baby survive was the most wonderful and incredible feeling that I think I will ever experience."
Later in the week, on March 28th, Save the Children hosted an event entitled "Uniting for Newborns." Save the Children Bangladesh Country Director Kelly Stevenson opened the event, which featured many experts and officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Patricia Butenis, the Bangladesh Secretary of the Ministry of Health & Family Services, Eshan Ul Fattah and the Director General of Health Services Dr. Biswas, and representatives from UNICEF, USAID, and GlaxoSmithKline.
"The general response from the Bangladesh government and other stakeholders (UNICEF, USAID, WHO, etc.) on newborn health in the country was extremely positive," said Dr. Lubana Ahmed of Save the Children.
"Great progress has been made in the past regarding neonatal health in Bangladesh, and I believe the conference was very well received and there is now new momentum that will spring forth even more positive results," said Draper, who spoke at the event.
The Caps to the Capital project was highlighted during the event as a positive example of grassroots engagement in maternal and newborn health issues. The caps served as a powerful symbol of the simple and low-cost solutions that can help to prevent newborn deaths in the developing world.
"Having Mollie and Mary involved was very valuable, raising awareness for newborn health issues," said Director Stevenson. "The Caps to the Capital project helped a new constituency unite for issues that are important to children."
Save the Children will distribute more than 200,000 caps to new mothers and babies in Sylhet. The caps are expected to arrive in Bangladesh in mid-April. The other 75,000 baby caps contributed through the project arrived in Malawi in March.
