Aussie Babywearers for Refugees

My name is Kirstin and I am a Consultant working in the Bain Sydney office. In addition to my work as a consultant, I wanted to talk about an important social impact initiative in which I am running called Aussie Babywearers for Refugees.

With over 75% of the Syrian refugee population made up of women and children, we realised that a baby carrier can literally save a child’s life. These carriers allow their carers to carry young children safely and for long distances, while keeping their hands free for other necessities.

KH1 From simple beginnings of a single Facebook post, we were able to build a national network of volunteers to collect donated baby carriers, centralise these donations in Sydney, and sort and pack donations for shipping. The result – a massive 1,951 baby carriers donated which are now on their way to refugees passing through Europe, and over $5,000 cash which will go towards assisting charities on the ground with distribution costs and to allow purchase of other necessities.

KH2

I am incredibly grateful to Bain for the support during this campaign. It is a testament to what a great company this is that, despite the fact that I have been on transfer away from the Australian practice for 18 months (and the fact that our business has absolutely nothing to do with baby carriers), the partner group were still ready and willing to put Bain resources at my disposal to make this happen. Special thanks to Ash, Bella and Narelle for handling the logistics (and the mail!).

While I am so proud of what we were able to achieve with this donation drive in the space of a few short weeks, this will address only a tiny tiny TINY part of the problem. The Red Cross are doing amazing work, day in and day out, with refugees fleeing this horrible conflict and Bain Australia is proud to support their work, too – with several thousand dollars being raised from across the practice.

Here are a couple of photos to illustrate just how big a job this was:

The mail – from a single day – before Bain stepped in to receive my deliveries.
(This is a station wagon – not a small boot space)