Prior to his April hunt in Namibia, Doug Boyle had read an article in Safari Times concerning a recent SafariCare mission in Africa. After reading the article, he reviewed the information on the SCI website and contacted Eva Wilson to request a Blue Bag be sent for his upcoming trip.
Having retired from Carter's Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, Doug’s position with Carter's had been manufacturing & sourcing the manufacturing of most of the baby apparel the company sold. Carter's is the largest marketer and distributor of infant & children's clothing in the United States.
From this association with Carter's, and the products they sell, he felt if he could deliver a Blue Bag filled with newborn & infant baby clothes to a small hospital or clinic. He believed that the contents could make a small difference in the experiences of new mothers bringing home their baby(ies) after child birth.
When he approached SafariCare, his goal was to try and affect a lot of people in a small, feel good way, instead of affecting a fewer number of people, in a big way. Knowing that a newborn is a tremendous changing event for anyone involved and he wanted to make that an even better experience if he could.
His trip included 2 additional SCI-Africa members. Tollie Jordaan of Tollies' African Safaris (South Africa), who helped arrange the hunt and joined him as well. Johan Kotze of Omatako Hunting Trails was hunt host & outfitter in Namibia. Johan's wife Elfie, thankfully made all the contacts for the delivery of the donation. Elfie started helping weeks before the scheduled arrival, since some of the clothing was direct shipped instead of hand carried.
Doug was right to pick baby clothes for this situation, as a number of his acquaintances responded and donated generously. He was able to fill three blue bags with over 600 baby garments. Eva Wilson responded quickly by sending two additional bags.
Elfie arranged for them to visit a clinic in Okahandja, Namibia, where one day each month they exclusively newborn & infant babies. They were met by A.N. Puukongo (Nurse), Julinda Gomaxas (Social Worker) & Sophia T Nicodemus (PHC Supervisor Okahandja District).
On Friday, April 17th, at 11:00AM, when they arrived at the clinic, the outside of the clinic was surrounded by a large number of mothers carrying their newborns. Apparently the arrival had been made known.
To avoid any confusion, the blue bags were taken into an office to unpack the donation. Everyone was quite surprised that all the clothes were new, not used. Smiles were everywhere. Doug recalled as he left, many of the mothers coming up to him to shake his hand and thank him. One young mother said in perfect English "God bless you", which surprised him to the point that he equated to 'being hit by a brick'.
The clothes will be used by the Nau-Aib Clinic, the Okahandja hospital, and a local orphanage (Project Orange Baby) that handles and provides milk to h.i.v. positive babies & infants.
Many thanks to: Charlie Whetzel of Carter's, Marc Compagnon & Jasmine Lim of Li & Fung Trading Company - Hong Kong, and Mr. Ma Wong Chin of Gimmill Industries - Singapore, for their generosity. A special thank you to Elfie Kotze for making everything happen once in Namibia.
