Geelong Mums, Eureka Mums and St Kilda Mums are deeply shocked and saddened by the recent bushfires across Australia. We know many of you will want to help and we are sharing information here about how you can best support us and affected families at this time.
As first priority, we urge anyone who wants to support victims of the bushfires to make a monetary donation to the organisations currently on the front line. These are the Australian Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Vinnies, Foodbank Victoria and state-based fire brigades, such as the CFA.
These organisations have stressed that, at this time, the best way to support is with money. They're simply not in a position to manage the processing and logistics involved in distributing donated goods, and are best placed to use financial support to fund their critical emergency response efforts.
We will be ready in the coming weeks to start distributing items for the babies and children of affected families. This can only happen when access is possible and it’s safe to do so. We stress that this assistance will only be provided through orders from social workers and Maternal & Child Health Nurses, as per our normal service.
Like many community welfare organisations, we are currently operating on skeleton staff and volunteers over the Christmas and New Year period. We are limited in our capacity to accept and process donations of goods.
We will open our doors to receive donations again on Monday 13 January and we urge anyone who wishes to donate items to carefully check the list of items we can and can't rehome before dropping off. If you are unsure please email us. It’s more important than ever that we do not receive items we are unable to rehome, which slows us down and limits our capacity to help those in crisis.
Sister organisations who provide essential items for babies and children in other states, will also be helping families in the coming weeks - more information about their services can be found here.
Please contact our service team by email if you are a social service agency or Maternal & Child Health Nurse who requires baby or children’s items for a family in crisis.
Thank you for your support.
2 January 2020 Media Release print here. Image: 9 News