Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams joined maternal health advocates and several local businesses to mobilize a collection drive for baby carriers that will aid refugee families with infants who are fleeing from violence in Syria that has killed over 250,000 people and displaced another four million.
He started the drive by announcing the donation of 100 baby carriers by Delta Children, a baby and toddler product retailer in Bedford-Stuyvesant, to Carry the Future, a non-profit campaign to collect baby carriers and other supplies and distribute them to families at refugee camps in Greece.
In December, Borough President Adams visited refugees at a site in Turkey near the Syrian border. At the launch of the collection drive on Monday inside Brooklyn Borough Hall, he spoke about how the lack of access to supportive items such as baby carriers for infants and toddlers has impacted families traveling hundreds of miles with small children in search of asylum.
"This campaign offers us an opportunity to demonstrate our compassion and our commitment to the refugees," said Borough President Adams. "Something as simple as this, as a carrier, as you navigate the road to freedom, the parents in these refugee camps will navigate that road with Brooklyn on their minds and in their hearts."
Along with BirthFocus, a doula service provider, Borough President Adams has coordinated donation sites for soft-structured baby carriers with clasps or harnesses that are new or gently-used at a number of locations across the borough.
In addition to Brooklyn Borough Hall, there are several small businesses participating in the collection drive, which will run through Friday, March 4th, including baby/mama in Bay Ridge, Copy Cottage in Boerum Hill, Clementine Bakery in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn Farmacy in Cobble Hill, Wild Was Mama in Greenpoint, and Lulu's Then and Now in Park Slope.
"I'm a mom, and I know that babies get heavier by the moment," said Gia Giasullo, owner of Brooklyn Farmacy. "To imagine women and men carrying their children I had a visceral response. Thinking about someone walking miles and miles, I want to help out. The baby carriers offered a solution that will help many people."
"I am proud to be associated in any effort in which humans help other humans," said Melissa Pagan, owner of Copy Cottage. "I believe if we made it our mission to do for others without personal reward, the world would be a better place for everyone. Compassion and kindness are free."