Vote now and make us win the "Grand Challenge"

 As you are already aware, we are finalists in this year Grand Challenge. Now you and all your friends can vote until July 11. Please go to the website:

http://www.savinglivesatbirth.net/innovation/2012/innovators/all

 and our project is towards the end of the list under World Health Organization:

"Omeed-e-kodak" Hope of the babies: An innovative approach empowering women to knit baby sweaters and hats and use mobile phones to increase the numbers of antenatal care visits, births by skilled attendants, postpartum visits and birth registration

Please use this opportunity to spread the word about our project!

There are many wonderful projects on the list, but we are counting on your support to win!!!

Thanks in advance!

A cute sweater-hat set

This was made by a former WHO staff member. She had bought the yarn (Barnat Baby Jacquards) from Michael's store in New York.

Knitting circle has expanded to Kenya!

The mother of a  WHO Omeed-e-Kodak knitting club member got interested in our project and has started to knit sweaters in Kenya! Here are the first ones. So beautiful and soft:

The yarn was order through internet:

here is the link to the website . The website has many varieties but here is the direct link to what our member bought.

http://www.rkmwools.co.uk/wool_shop.php?store_cat_id=1538&nav_id=1537

The colours of the two sweaters are:

http://www.rkmwools.co.uk/product_detail.php?prod_id=8363  - Baby Marble DK Shade BM5

http://www.rkmwools.co.uk/product_detail.php?prod_id=26800 - Baby Marble DK Shade BM13

The yarn costs £2.50 each ball of 100g ( about  Chf 3.7 each). She bought 10 balls and the total cost with postage was £32.60 (Chf 49) and since the package was quite compressed there was no additional cost with the Swiss post.

These sweaters brighten up even a rainy day!

They were knitted in the German-speaking Switzerland. Delightfully colorful!

We are finalists in "Grand Challenge"!!!

Fantastic news: The "Hope for the Babies" project, presented through the World Health Organization to the "Grand Challenge: saving lives at birth" has been chosen as a finalist! We have been invited to attend the Development Exchange, July 12-14, 2012, to participate in the final stage of the competition in Seattle, WA USA. If we win we can have funds to support the Afghan women knitters to make 15000 sweaters and hats for newborn babies and we can have money to do research to assess how this will increase the attendance at antenatal care and have more women to deliver with skilled birth attendant. We still need to continue to knit the sweaters in all corners of the earth as we have been doing because the needs are enormous and also we want to demostrate our solidarity that women everywhere want to support Afghan women and newborn babies.