Background & Introduction In 1949 the Finnish Social Security Institution had made the decision to provide each expectant mother & adoptive parent living in Finland with a maternity box that provided all the necessary items to care for a newborn child. This law was passed as part of the Finnish Maternity Grants act and was put into action to try prevent and decrease child mortality rates, child illness rates and child abandonment statistics due to low income families that were unable to provide basic needs for their newborn child. NACSA had found the Finnish Maternity Box a great initiative and decided to create The Choose to Care Baby Box Campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to address the growing challenges of Child mortality due to malnutrition and poverty stricken families that are unable to buy the basic needs for their new-born child in South Africa. Shocking statistics show that children in South Africa do not make it to their 5th birthday and 75% of new- born babies die within their first week of life, mostly caused by poverty, disease and lack of basic needs. 64% of those child mortality rates are due to malnutrition. According to Stats SA, 27 million people live below the poverty line and 10.2 million people cannot afford to feed themselves everyday. Malnutrition is currently top 5 in child mortality under the age of 5 years in SA. Providing poverty stricken women, baby homes and young families with the basic needs to help support their new- born baby will not only take huge amounts of pressure off of them financially but in hopes to decrease child abandonment cases, infant diseases as well as child mortality rates. Help us save one little life, with one little box.

About Choose to Care The ‘Choose to Care’ crisis pregnancy campaign and support centre was launched in June 2015 for Youth Month. The focus on the campaign is to build care and compassion around the issue of crisis pregnancy, amongst young women, their partners, their families and their communities. Women experiencing a crisis pregnancy can gain information and support via our call centre on , our Mxit app and our website at Since its launch, we have gained more than members on our Mxit app and have helped over 1000 women experiencing a crisis pregnancy. We continue to assist close to 80 women a month with the hopes that we are saving lives one phone call at a time. For 2015’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, NACSA, under choose to care, developed an innovative new campaign to build awareness around the issue of child abandonment. Nearly 2000 baby dolls were made by volunteers and then “abandoned” in key community hubs such as shopping malls, taxi ranks, dustbins and hospitals during this important week. On finding the dolls, people were asked to take care of them and to get involved in raising awareness around the issue of child abandonment. This included connecting people to the Choose to Care support centre, posting pictures of themselves with the abandoned dolls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which led to our campaign trending on these networks during 16 Days of Activism. We were supported and partnered by a number of baby homes in this campaign, and we hope to expand this support in 2016, to bring awareness to the many homes that take care of our abandoned children in SA and the wonderful work that you do.

The Finnish Baby Box Over the past 75 years every expectant parent and adoptive parent in Finland has received a maternity package by the Finnish Social Security Institution to help ease the pressure of becoming parents. To date Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rate in the world and it is believed that these Maternity Boxes are the main reason as no parent/ infant leaves the hospital without the basic fundamentals. Each box consists of the following items: Snowsuit / sleeping bag Sleeping bag / quilt Light quilted suit Wool-mix suit Knitted hat Hat Balaclava hat Tights socks and mittens 1 bodysuit Body and romper suit x 3 Stretch suit Leggings Body leggings Shirt leggings Mattress & mattress cover Under sheet &blanket Bath towel nail scissors Toothbrush hairbrush thermometer & bath thermometer reusable nappies absorbing pads x 2 bra pads nipple cream Condoms x 6 Feeding bib Drooling bib Book Teething toy The Box

The Proposed Choose to Care Baby Box There are many teen mothers, single mothers and poverty stricken families who fall pregnant and don’t have the means to provide the basic needs for their new born child. Unfortunately the government hospitals are so pressed for space that many women have their babies and are asked to leave with little to no recovery time. What do you do with a new-born child and nothing else? Not even a change of clothes or a clean nappy? We would like to launch the Choose To Care Baby Box on the 16th July 2016 for Mandela Day- 67minutes. We are currently working on a design for sturdy cardboard box that is not only able to hold contents but can double up as a baby cot for a safe sleeping environment as well as a play box for when the child is a little older. Each Baby Box will contain all the necessities that a mother needs to care for her new-born child. Providing formula, clothing, nappies and sterilization tools, we not only making sure the baby is well fed but are cautious about providing a hygienic environment as infants are susceptible to illness and disease. A Choose To Care/ Courage handbook will also be provided that contains all the developmental stages a baby will go through as well as suggestions and advice. The Choose to care baby box is estimated to cost R1000 per box with everything bought new, however, much of the contents will be gained through donations which we will call for through social media channels. We also plan on asking for donations for 67 minutes to buy the products needed. Many corporate companies have already shown a massive interest and are willing to involve all staff members to either donate, create or distribute boxes to varies hospitals, clinics and baby homes.

(Choose To Care Baby Box picture to follow) The Choose to Care Baby Box Each Baby Box will consist of: –1 x Baby box/ Baby cot –1 x changing mat/ mattress –3 x Receiving blankets –1 x Knitted blanket –3 x Baby grows –3 x Booties/ socks –5 x Cloth nappies –5/10 x Disposable nappies –1 x New born baby formula –2 x Bottles –1 x Baby bath towel –1 x Pack of sanitary pads –6 x Condoms –1 x Nappy rash paste\ –1 x Surgical spirits –1 x Cotton wool –1 x Facecloth –1 x Baby soap1 x Choose to care/ Courage child development booklet Each box will cost approximately R1000. This excludes donated and second hand baby items.

Action & Involvement Action: Over the next 2 months we will be: –Advertising our campaign via social media to gain interest –Advertise for donations –Get into contact with corporate companies who would be willing to be involved in our campaign for 67 minutes community work –Approach big retail companies for either donations or discounted prices on baby goods needed such a Huggies/ Pampers etc –Brief volunteers –Make connections with other initiatives like The ThulaBaba Box, Tokai Lions Club & The Grace Factory Involvement: –The public can get involved in various ways such as: –Donate a complete box –The public can donate new & second hand baby goods needed to fill the boxes –If the public would like to donate money we will direct them to the NACSA donation link ( and use any cash donations to contribute towards buying the baby goods ourselveslink ( –Create social media awareness of our campaign by sharing and liking our pages and stories –Help fill and/or distribute baby boxes

Should you want to get involved, please contact us on: Tamara Dal Dee Blackie THANK-YOU