Quarterly Charity: Carry the Future

Rachael Rachael, a mom of two daughters, is a freelance editor and writer who enjoys gardening and dreams of keeping chickens in her suburban St. Louis backyard. In her spare time, she helps to edit her husband’s science fiction books. Read more of Rachael's work at www.rachaelsjohnston.com or contact her by emailing [email protected].

From July through September 2017, Mumbling Mommy is promoting the charity Carry the Future. We prioritize supporting charities that help women, children, and families, and we’ve especially sought to highlight charities that help refugee families. Carry the Future is a unique organization that provides baby and child carriers as well as baby beds and survival items to refugee families.

Here are some brief facts about Carry the Future:

The organization’s website states, “Carry The Future began on September 15th, 2015 when Founder, Cristal Logothetis, saw the heart-wrenching picture of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian child who drowned while his family was trying to reach safety in Greece. Cristal decided to take immediate action. Some quick research revealed that refugees were walking hundreds of miles across Europe, often in bad weather, through dangerous passages, carrying small children in their arms. Being a long-time baby wearer herself, Cristal immediately saw the potential impact a baby carrier could have on the lives of refugees. That day, she began asking for donated new or gently used carriers through Facebook and launched an Indiegogo.com campaign to collect funds to ship the carriers to the Greek island of Kos, where she has relatives who agreed to distribute them.”
Since Carry the Future began, volunteers have collected and personally delivered more than 14,000 wearable baby and toddler carriers, and thousands of items such as baby beds, blankets, children’s seasonal gear, socks, and shoes.
Carry the Future has a volunteer staff of more than 100 people. Each month, teams of additional volunteers from around the world travel to deliver items to families at refugee camps and settlements worldwide. Because items are personally delivered, there are no concerns about delayed shipments or customs delays. Also, recipients are shown how to safely use carriers and baby beds. Additional volunteer teams live near refugee camps so that Carry the Future can provide aid and be aware of needs.
You can get involved with Carry the Future by donating money, becoming a volunteer staff member, holding a diaper drive, holding a fundraiser, assembling supply kits for new moms and infants, or traveling to personally deliver aid items. Learn more at this link. You can also get updates by following Carry the Future’s blog and trip journals. In addition, you can share about Carry the Future on social media. More than 70% of donors learned about Carry the Future because followers liked and shared information on social media.

Editors’ Note: Mumbling Mommy usually promotes charities that have an overall four-star rating at charitynavigator.org. Carry the Future is a relatively new charity and therefore is not rated, but we believe this organization is doing unique and important work that will resonate with our readers and we want to help get the word out.

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