October Just Posts

Again it’s the time of the month where we meet at our virtual round table and share what we found about social justice. Sit down with Mad, Jen, and me, have a nice hot beverage (or cold if you happen to not live in the Northern hemisphere) and read a bit.

Last month there was the second annual Blog Action Day, and the theme this year was “poverty”. A couple of posts about this are in the lovely list below. The project I want to highlight this month also has to do with poverty.
It was initiated by Amanda Soule. She has launched the project Mama to Mama. Connecting families through the gift of handmade. I have to admit that my first thought was, “Well, great, now they are sewing caps for babies on Haiti.” But I checked it out nonetheless, and then I read Meg’s post about the project and about Haiti. She sums it up much better than I ever could so please go over and read it.
This is what moved me the most:

[…]the health and nutritional status of many (and in the poorer areas, most) mothers is very compromised during pregnancy, and therefore so is the health and nutrititional status of their babies. What our nurses have found is that the newborns, especially the premature and low-birth-weight babies are often very cold. A full-term healthy newborn has a store of fat which supplies sufficient calories to carry them for several days, and help them grow and thrive. Premature, and low-birth-weight babies don’t have this. Even though it is warm in Haiti, the ambient temperature is usually less than the body temperature, and if these compromised babies have to use their calories to maintain body temperature, it is not going toward growth, and lessens their chances to survive and thrive. So in the context of an otherwise healthy population, the caps would not be so critical, but in the areas in which we are working, and for the newborns we have connections with, they are important.

And if you, like me, are not likely to sew something to be shipped to Haiti, either because you don’t sew or it would be madness to ship something like that halfway around the world, go and read it anyways because you can also help by donating, or – the easiest option – by spreading the word.
I also want you to keep in mind that the Just Posts are a community effort, so I want to encourage everyone to write about social justice and tell us about it (you can find my e-mail on my about page), and to tell us about anything you read regarding this subject.

Alejna with Blog Action Day
Billie with Registering the homeless to vote and Bolivia to USA: “Return Goni to justice”
Cecileaux with Thinking toward a new economy and Joe the plumber economics
Citymama with Letter to Wallie and Bunny before Election Day
Cyn at MOMocrats with National Happy Coming Out Day and No on California’s Prop 8
Defiant Muse with Reprieve
Emily with How I know that I live in the South
Getting it wrong with Hippie girl days
Girlgriot with This and that one
Her Bad Mother with Angelina And Me, Our Bodies, Our Selves, Our CHILDREN’S Selves, and Sings The Tune Without The Words
Holly with Blog Action Day (After)
Jaelithe at MOMocrats with Blog Action Day: Education is the key to escaping poverty
Janelle with Wealth…
Jen with the flood pt. 4 – everything is still really bad and I am a real American
Jess with Redemption Song
Josh with Rescue package
Julie with River raft beds and other reflections
Kimberly with The ugly side of politics and people
Kyla with Joe the Plumber
Laloca with The intersection of poverty, psychiatry and the law
Lara with Gone a year and Were you bold? Did you wear red today?
LesbianDad with Oh the posts, they are coming fast and furious these days
Leslie with A perfect world and Proposition eight, proposition hate
Lia with Enriching Our Lives
Lisa Lam on CraftBoom! with Blog Action Day – Poverty. It’s helping, that’s what counts….
Maggie, dammit with Awareness, What are you contributing with all that hate and Please Help
Magpie with Healthy Eating
Mary with what women want
Mary Murtz with Reclamation
Maryam with Ethnic cleansing: Rwanda style, Rwanda and the 12 wishes and Rwanda and a colored place
Mir Kamin on BlogHer with National Mammography Day is October 17th
PunditMom with Taking our daughters to the polls
Rebecca with Trying to find the words, Donate to your local food pantry, Local food economies need local processing to thrive and Tax the rich: a rant about socialism
Social Justice Soapbox with International Day for the eradication of poverty and An apple for the teacher
Susan Wagner on BlogHer with DonorsChoose Challenge – Well, color me happy!
Suzanne Reisman on BlogHer with October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2008: The Best of the Worst Marketing
Tiny Mantras with The early voting experience
Whiskey in my sippy cup with Just say no
Wrekehavoc with Kill the poor

Readers
Moosh!
Hel
Maggie
Holly
Alejna

As usual you should go to Mad and Jen too to see what they are writing about this month.