Rosie Scribble

Why I've been keeping an eye on William and Catherine this week

Very rarely can I say I'm following in the footsteps of Royalty.  In fact, this is a first. You see, next week I’m flying off to Denmark to visit UNICEF's Global Supply Centre in Copenhagen and following in the footsteps of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who were there on Wednesday.

The purpose of their trip was help focus attention back the on-going humanitarian disaster in the horn of Africa where approximately 13 million people are at risk of starvation, half of them children.

I'm travelling there to find out more about UNICEF's Inspired Christmas Gifts range which I’ll be helping to promote in the run-up to Christmas.

It seems a lifetime ago since I last witnessed the work of UNICEF first hand. It’s a charity whose work I feel passionate about having been involved with their corporate partnership with Pampers, so I’m excited to be getting more involved in their work again.

A final thank you

This post is simply to say thank you to everyone who followed my trip to Cameroon last year and helped support Pampers and UNICEF’s campaign to eliminate Maternal and Newborn Tetanus.

Thanks also to everyone who listened to me talk about my trip at the recent Cybermummy conference and for your overwhelming feedback.

Your support helped raise the funding for 41,543, 890 life-saving vaccines and will have saved countless lives across the developing world.

You may spot a few bloggers you know in the video below.

Thank you from me and from the team at Pampers and UNICEF.

Together bloggers really can make a difference.

Reflecting on Africa

It seems at age since I spent a week in Cameroon with the Pampers and UNICEF team. Eight months  on, I am reflecting on the trip and wondering what, if anything, has changed since then. 

And life has changed.

I now have my health, which was questionable at times before the trip. Things changed substantially for me when I talked to a doctor in a nutrition clinic about children suffering from malnutrition. I came home, sorted out my own at-times-restricted diet and I haven’t looked back since.

The newfound appreciation of the material wealth we have in the developed world has also remained with me. We buy a lot less these days and we get outdoors a lot more.

I do think of the women I met; I doubt little has changed for them or their families. I hope the success of the campaign to eliminate tetanus made a small difference to the lives of those with so many additional issues to face.

Pampers, UNICEF and a final reminder

With the end of the year in sight, and as I travel to London today to meet the team at UNICEF once again, it seems appropriate that I post one final reminder about the Pampers and UNICEF campaign, which ends this month.

It is easy to forget that the fight again tetanus in the developing world continues daily; it is certainly easy for me to forget despite travelling to Cameroon and witnessing the work of the Pampers and UNICEF partnership first hand.

So these images also act as a reminder to me of all that has been achieved so far in eliminating a disease we don’t have to think about in the UK, and the work that still needs to be done. It is also a last opportunity for me to post these images here this year.

Around the world the campaign has reached 100 million women and their babies in 21 countries across 2 continents. The aim is to help globally eliminate the disease by raising money for the life-saving vaccines needed to protect the lives of the 170 million women and their babies still at risk from the disease.

Travelling to Cameroon this summer was an incredible personal journey for me, yet one I have been pleased to be able to share on my blog. Incredible to think a blogger could make this trip. It may have been six months ago now but regularly people are still clicking over and reading about the trip, for which I am very grateful.

So here’s a final reminder in pictures of some of the people the campaign is helping – individuals who had a real impact on me when I was fortunate enough to meet them.

The Pampers and UNICEF campaign runs until the end of December. For every Pampers product purchased with the “1 pack = 1 life-saving vaccine” logo, Pampers will donate the cost of one tetanus vaccine to UNICEF.  Additionally, by visiting the Pampers Village website and clicking on the Big Kiss button, a ‘virtual kiss’ will be sent to Pampers and UNICEF. For every ‘virtual kiss’ sent, Pampers will make an additional donation to UNICEF.

Thank you.

Things this post should say

This post should probably say something about my wonderful evening at the Mother and Baby Awards last night and mention how beneficial it is, for me, to be out socialising in the real world and feeling as if I am ‘living a little’.

This post should probably thank the Fleishman team for sending me to the event as a Pampers/UNICEF blogger.

This post should probably acknowledge the stark contrast between a lavish award ceremony in London and the daily struggles of life in Cameroon, which did not go unacknowledged, and state that the opportunity to attend such an event and stay in an expensive Hyde Park hotel did not go unappreciated.

This post must mention my renewed motivation to promote the work of UNICEF on this blog. A relationship has been developed there and it’s something I am committed to pursuing. So watch this space …

This post simply has to mention Nicky – the midwife who travelled to Africa with me -  and who I met again at the awards last night. Her commitment to helping mothers and babies in the developing world is exceptional and has motivated to do what I can in my own small way.

This post would also like to thank @Cafebebe for her company and my blog sister @Mummytips whose bone-crushing hug was the highlight of my evening.

This post will also mention Jason Manford who provided the entertainment for the evening and was hilarious.

This post would have included a photo of me posing this morning at Kings Cross Station with Children in Need’s Pudsey Bear, if I had not been quite so red-eyed and half a sleep, and if one late night was not such a rarity that exhaustion has left me feeling slightly disoriented.

What is clear, if nothing else, is that I need to get out more often.