Church of Jesus Christ and the NAACP Fight Infant Mortality – powered by Happy Scribe
If a person can’t even get the first breath or first step, we’re done.
On a brisk fall day in a Memphis, Tennessee neighborhood.
If you know anybody that can benefit, maybe they’re pregnant at this time. Maybe it’s somebody that had a baby.
The Dudley family joined dozens of other latterday Safe volunteers.
This zip code, in which we are now 38126, has one of the highest, if not the highest, infant mortality rate.
For a news conference at the NAACP Memphis branch.
We want to make sure, if they know of any moms to be, to tell them to come out before being.
Outfitted with maps, yellow vests and pamphlets.
It’s all yours.
To get the word out door to door about a new lifesaving program near and dear to their hearts.
This is something that hits us right where we live because we had a youngster that passed away just after a year old.
It’s a special moment, and we think that we can make a change.
After a six month collaboration between NAACP Memphis branch leaders and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, which also includes participation by local government and community businesses, the My Baby for Me program was born that tackles a dire need in Memphis’s southern Shelby County, lowering infant mortalities that are three times the national average.
This partnership is God ordained and God inspired, and I’m just so happy that it’s happening at such a critical time in our city.
This issue affects every aspect of this community.
The program focuses on food knowledge and hope for expectant mothers and their families.
What we’re going to do is teach them how to nurture their babies, how to become a mother. What does it take to be a mother?
We’ve got resources and people with expertise to help with this program. So whether it’s breastfeeding, nursing, anxiety, any of those questions that they may have.
This is the second of five collaborative efforts slated by the Church and the NAACP. The inaugural project happening at a community garden in San Francisco in October. The church has pledged $2 million a year over three years to help fund the projects.
We believe that helping others with our good fortune is just a basic desire of Christian attributes. So we want to be like Christ.
We want to make sure that the families are fed. They get a hot meal when they’re here. So we needed a new kitchen. And that’s what church is going to do, is going to help us renovate our kitchen area.
I think they’re strong. So does their relationship to the community. They know the people. They identify with them.
In the meantime, another selfless enterprise, the Vance Avenue Youth Development Center, where two meals a day are prepared for more than 100 children facing food. Insecurity has offered their kitchen to prepare meals for the My Baby for Me program.
We don’t have much to give, but what we have is a lot of love here. We have a lot of love for this community.
The program kicks off on november 29 with the help of volunteers like the dudleys to get the word to those who are most in need.
Right here in this building here. The woman was like, this is great. I mean, this is really great. And especially understanding that there’s help there. And then the key thing is that it’s free, and it’s free.
Okay.
Hey, Katie.
We, like, free to their first breath.
In their first step, we had the opportunity to knock on the door of a woman that is pregnant right now. So her eyes kind of lit up, and she was thankful for the program.
All right, thank you.
Have a good evening.
Thank you all so much for coming out today, for my babies, for me. And we’re going to make this a huge success. Thank you so much.
The goal to expand into other areas of memphis and beyond over the next.
Few years, it’s going to turn out to be an awesome program, and we’re going to do great with it.