Upstate New York Council
Join the Upstate NY Council to help expand the CCM newborn project into some of the most difficult areas of Nicaragua with the highest rates of extreme poverty (75%)!
A few members of the council gather to help raise funds for children in Kenya. Front row: Vin Cooper, Emily Cooper, Kay Moberg, Stephanie Jorgensen, Kathy Braico. Back row center: Scott Moberg, Shawn Jorgensen, and John Braico. Also pictured: speaker Barry Finette of THINKMD (left)
Council Members (left to right): Diana Sarro (Save the Children), Beth Miles, Emily Cooper, Kathy Braico, Matt Miles, Shawn Jorgensen, Meaghan Dugan, and Mike O'Toole.
Not pictured: Anja O'Toole, Vincent Cooper, Doug Girling, John Braico, Chris and Alison Knauf, and Ross and Maureen Schlinger.
Council Members: Top row: Lily Miles, Matt Miles, Meaghan Dugan, Erin Rudd, Shawn Jorgensen, Kathy Braico, Beth Miles, and Clara Somoza Bottom row: Christa Switzer, Stephanie Jorgensen, Kellie Girling
Not pictured: Doug Girling, Chris and Alison Knauf, and Ross and Maureen Schlinger.
Our Mission
The Upstate New York Council of Save the Children is a group of dedicated individuals from the capital region and Saratoga area of New York who are committed to reducing the burden of extreme poverty in the developing world, one project at a time.
We aim to join together the contributions of neighbors throughout Upstate NY and collectively support select projects for the world's poorest children that achieve immediate and lasting change by improving their health, education and economic opportunities.
Our Vision
Save the Children identifies several priority needs from around the world where a small amount of private funds could make a big difference and are of a size and scope that our group could fund. We then present the potential projects to the entire committee in the spring and the one that best fits the group's goals is chosen. This becomes the project we support with our fundraiser in the fall.
The board votes annually on a priority project to distribute funds, considering where needs are both greatest, as well as how support will be used most sustainably and in the most effective manner.
Our projects must:
- Target those most in need - in an area of extreme poverty in the third world.
- Be highly efficient - helping the greatest number of people for the least amount of money.
- Be sustainable - ideally, a local or national Government will consider our project for adoption nationally or regionally, thereby providing a long-term solution for the community and multiplying our impact.
Our Results
Through seven fall fundraisers, two golf tournaments, and a black tie affair, our small but mighty group has raised more than $600,000 to help transform the lives of children around the world!
A meticulous project selection process and efficient and effective execution of these projects by Save the Children, has enabled us to leverage a modest amount of money to do amazing things, including:
- Saving the lives of over 3,500 children.
- Achieving amazing efficiency of $57 spent for every life saved (well below typical philanthropic standards).
- Shaping national policy regarding newborn health in Liberia and Nicaragua.
We need your help to make this possible and are actively looking for neighbors who would like get involved and invest their philanthropy in the future of children.
For more information about the Upstate NY Council, please contact:
Mary Leffel
Officer, Individual Philanthropy Group
Save the Children
[email protected]
203-246-3481
2023 PROJECT
SAVING NEWBORN LIVES IN NICARAGUA
The Upstate NY Council began the CCM newborn project in Nicaragua in 2015, and it has been an incredible success. We plan to expand this program into some of the most difficult areas of Nicaragua with the highest rates of extreme poverty (75%)!
PROPOSAL:
- Equip 5 neonatal care units and train 25 staff members to run them, which will serve 6,699 pregnant women and the same number of newborns yearly.
- We will also train 30 brigadistas in CCM newborn to work in 10 communities, who will then work in the Bateys indefinitely.
PRICE: $77,500
PROJECT TYPE: Sustainable, measurable, long-term
2022 PROJECT
CHILD & MATERNAL HEALTHCARE IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The sugar cane communities or bateyes in San Pedro de Macoris are enclaves historically built around sugar mills and linked to sugar production. The families living in bateys have little to no access to basic services, including water, electricity, education, and have high incidents of exclusion, poverty and discrimination.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: Immediate benefit and ongoing
AMOUNT RAISED: $48,282
RESULTS:
- 39 health care workers trained in CCM
- 8 bateys supplied with first aid medical equipment
- 8 bateys supplied with 5 premature newborn kits/batey, total of 40
- 446 pregnant women and children<5 monitored by health care workers
MULTIPLYING EFFECT: Health care workers will continue to work in the bateys indefinitely and will be folded into the MOH who will fund them going forward
2021 PROJECT
CHILDREN IN CRISIS IN MYANMAR
Innocent children in Myanmar have had their futures brutally and needlessly snatched away from them. The deadly and ongoing violence is having a deep impact on the mental health of millions of boys and girls. As children continue to be among the targets of fatal attacks, including attacks against schools, Save the Children and our local partners are providing front-line support.
With your help, we raised $63,622 to help with the crisis, providing food, education, and emergency shelters and health care.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: Immediate, emergency
AMOUNT RAISED: $63,622
2020 PROJECT
SAVING LIVES OF CHILDREN IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Despite COVID and not being able to have “traditional” events, in 2020 we were still able to raise funds to protect the kids we have supported over the past three years in the Kibra area of Nairobi, Kenya from the impact of COVID-19. In the overcrowded Kibra area, one of the largest areas of extreme urban poverty in the world, social distancing is almost impossible.
With your help we provided Kibra with personal protective equipment (PPE): 10,000 surgical masks, 10,000 N95 masks 10,000 disposable gowns, and 100 Handwashing stations and soap for this very poor community.
AMOUNT RAISED: $26,107
With your support, we competed our project in the slums of Kenya saving an estimated 900 lives of children under age 5. The result of our pilot will be shared with other organizations to replicate and improve urban healthcare elsewhere around the world!
2019-2018 PROJECT
SAVING LIVES OF CHILDREN IN NAIROBI, KENYA
The Kibra area in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of the largest areas of extreme urban poverty in the world. Our group funded a trial of MEDSINC, an easy-to-use computer program that allows providers with little formal training to deliver physician-level health care adhering to international guidelines and saving preventable illnesses and death.
Our project piloted a proven algorithm technology to train private practitioners to properly diagnose, treat, and refer children for proper treatment. We also connected practitioners with authentic mediations in an effort to save the lives of more children in this desperately poor area.
AMOUNTS RAISED: $81,600 and $100,787
MULTIPLYING EFFECT: The project was so successful that it is being replicated in adjacent areas.
In 2017, we provided critical aid for the children and families facing massive devastation in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, so they can recover and rebuild their lives.
2017 PROJECT
RELIEF FOR PUERTO RICO AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The destruction was massive across the island, complicated by severe power, fuel and communications challenges. Thanks to our support Save the Children's relief experts were on the ground doing whatever it took to care for the most vulnerable in any emergency: children. Our support also helped another hard-hit island, the Dominican Republic.
AMOUNT RAISED: $25,000
In 2017, we felt strongly that the plight of the Rohingya people could not be ignored. More than half of a million children and families are in dire need of immediate lifesaving aid and our group raised funds toward helping children there.
2017 PROJECT
RELIEF FOR THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
The majority of the refugees who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh are children, and an alarming number of these children are suffering from malnutrition.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: Immediate emergency aid
AMOUNT RAISED: $25,000
RESULTS: Food, water, education, shelter, psychosocial support, and medical aid delivered to children in greatest need.
2016 PROJECT
PROVIDING HEALTH FACILITIES IN BANGLADESH
Our collective support is improving and saving the lives of mothers and newborns in rural Bangladesh by providing a safe place for mothers to give birth in four rehabilitated health centers. Bangladesh has one of the highest numbers of mothers and babies who die in childbirth.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: Ongoing
AMOUNT RAISED: $23,000
RESULTS: Four health facilities have been rehabilitated allowing for more births to be attended, protecting mothers and newborns, and improving the quality of care.
Chlorhexidine applied to the umbilical cord stump can help protect newborn babies from infection. Photo: Save the Children/Abir Abdullah
2015 PROJECT
SAVING NEWBORN LIVES IN BANGLADESH
We decided to help another country who desperately needed funds to save newborns from sepsis by providing the antiseptic Chlorhexidine. We knew the solution was effective and cost so little to provide.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: One-time
AMOUNT RAISED: $35,000
RESULTS: Over 84,000 doses were purchased to treat and save newborns in Bangladesh. Newborn infections in Bangladesh typically account for 23% of all neonatal deaths, but in a representative district where our chlorhexidine was used, only one death occurred out of 392 live births treated (0.26%)!
MULTIPLYING EFFECT: CHX treatment of newborn umbilical stumps is now national policy for home and facility births. For many reasons, including CHX treatment, the newborn infant mortality has gone from 28/100,000 to 18/100,000 (30,000 newborns per year!)
Our 2014 seed funding made treatment of sick newborns possible for the first time ever in some of the poorest remote communities of Nicaragua. This is a model program currently being expanded to additional communities.
2014 AND 2016 PROJECT
SAVING NEWBORN LIVES IN NICARAGUA
Community case management (CCM) is a program serving remote communities in Nicaragua over 2 hours away from the nearest medical facilities. This program trains community members basic triage and treatment of common childhood problems. From 2007-2014, this program reduced the mortality by 50% for children 5!
Our group funded a new version of CCM for newborns under 3 months that were not included in the prior CCM program and required special training for those volunteers previous trained in CCM for older children.
TYPE OF BENEFITS: Ongoing
AMOUNT RAISED: $25,899 and $37,700
RESULTS: Since our group’s initial funding of the project, CCM newborn now:
- is the official policy of the Ministry of Health
- covers over half of the areas of Nicaragua requiring it
MULTIPLYING EFFECT: the Ministry of Health has adopted CCM newborn as official policy and is projected to have it serving all areas that need it by 2025. Our project’s success has encouraged other donors that have donated over $1,000,000 to the cause!
A mother in Liberia who just received chlorhexidine for her baby. Photo: Save the Children
2013 PROJECT
SAVING NEWBORN LIVES IN LIBERIA
A newborn's umbilical cord is a potential entry point for bacteria which could lead to severe and fatal newborn infection. Preventable infections are one of the three major causes of newborn deaths in the developing world.
TYPE OF BENEFIT: One-time
AMOUNT RAISED: $25,000 ($12,500 used for Ebola emergency)
RESULTS: Upstate NY Friends rallied to allow 6,805 newborns to be treated with the inexpensive antiseptic chlorhexidine. The good news: NO deaths were reported in treated groups, despite only anticipating a 23% drop in mortality! This solution has now been adopted nationally.
MULTIPLYING EFFECT: Liberia has officially adopted the use of chlorhexidine as national practice for the treatment of newborns after our project proved it could work there. Newborn mortality has now dropped from 32/100,000 to 27/100,000 due to this and other measures, saving an estimated 700 newborns per year!
Opportunities exist for members of our group to travel to the field to see the impact we are having on children and communities. In 2016, several members visited Nicaragua and met some of the community health workers our support trained!
Committee members' children have been instrumental in providing volunteer support for our events and now they are also planning events of their own! Youth members have also been able to travel to the field with their parents.
For more information
For more information about the Upstate NY Council, please contact:
Mary Leffel
Officer, Individual Philanthropy Group
Save the Children
[email protected]
203-246-3481
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