Every Mother Counts & Mother’s Day with Minted

When I attended Alt Summit in Salt Lake City earlier this year, I had the privilege of meeting Christy Turlington (yes, THE Christy Turlington), who was at the conference to raise awareness for her nonprofit, Every Mother Counts. In their own words, Every Mother Counts “is a campaign to end preventable deaths caused by pregnancy and childbirth around the world. Every Mother Counts informs, engages, and mobilizes new audiences to take action to improve the health and well-being of girls and women worldwide.” EMC creates partnerships all over the world–Haiti, Malawi, and Indonesia, to name a few countries–providing transportation, education, supplies, health care, training, and more to help reduce to number of preventable maternal deaths associated with child birth worldwide. It’s some really amazing, vastly important work, the kind that changes lives and moves people to tears, and they want YOU to help!

I got to make a small contribution to their efforts last week by collecting supplies for safe birth kits to be sent to Uganda. The kits contained things I take for granted, like a bar of soap and a baby blanket, but items that will make a huge impact in the lives of new mothers in a developing country. The youth group at our church helped collect and organize supplies, and the church members generously donated baby hats, crib sheets, gauze strips, and more. One sweet lady said she spent all week knitting baby hats using her vast stash of yarn. Before putting the kits together, the girls and I watched this fantastic video series about training midwives in Haiti, and it was really amazing to see the difference caring individuals can make in the world.

The board of Every Mother Counts includes Miriam Naficy, the CEO of Minted, my favorite online stationery company. Minted is partnering up with EMC this Mother’s Day season and has given all of us an easy and beautiful way to join in. Minted currently donates 2% of all art sales to Every Mother Counts, but for the next week, if you use the code LULUEMC when you make a purchase, they’ll donate 20% of your purchase to making a difference in the world. And you’ll get a free downloadable card letting your mom know you made a contribution in her honor. The code is good for one week from today (so until next Friday, May 2nd), but if you want to purchase a beautiful piece of art as a Mother’s Day gift, you have to order by Monday the 28th to guarantee receipt before the holiday.

Happy Mother’s Day! Go make a difference!