Celebrating our first birthday with baby Fabio!

This month we’re celebrating our first birthday! And what a year it’s been – thanks to your custom we’re already donating our profits to support six children and two nursery schools.

To celebrate we’re delighted to introduce you to this cheeky little chap! Baby Fabio, one year old and from Brazil, is the youngest in his SOS family – his SOS mother says he loves the attention!

Despite all we know and love about Brazil there is great inequality and for many, life is extremely insecure and unsafe. Both Fabio’s parents died, but now that he’s with his SOS family he has a new start in life.

We’re donating 100% of our profit to help orphaned children across Africa and in India and Brazil.  Our profit supports them to live in new family homes in children’s villages run by our partner charity SOS Children.  There they grow up safely, loved by their SOS mother, brothers and sisters, and go to school. We’re also using our profits to support 2 village nursery schools, in Zambia and Malawi.

Marking our first year, Fabio’s gorgeous smile is extra special and we love to think how we’re growing up alongside him and all the children we support.  Thanks to all our customers and supporters for making our first year so special, even more so for the children whose lives you’ve changed. For them and us, let’s see what fun toddlerhood brings!

Buy beautiful baby clothes at www.frombabieswithlove.org: Style with substance and smiles all round!

The New Buzz Word in Baby Wear is Organics!

In its March-April 2013 edition, Gurgle Magazine says the new buzz word in baby wear is organics!  ”…when you’re a new mum it suddenly feels important that your little one is wrapped up in natural fibres that have been ethically resourced.”  

At from babies with love this is certianly our experience, plus there are the social and environmental benefits too. Organic means no artificial pesticides are sprayed on crops, the cotton is not genetically modified and that cotton producers, wildlife and the environment are protected. Using organic cotton means we are working with nature not against it.

Plus, as Gurgle Magazine says: “if you want to feel even better about yourself, how about cute baby grows from frombabieswithlove.org – not only are they made from 100 percent orgnaic cotton, but all (yes, all) their profits go towards helping abandoned children around the world”. Check out Gurgle Magazine for the latest parenting news!

New Year message from Mariama’s village in The Gambia

Starting the New Year with a lovely message, we’ve received a heart warming update from Mariama’s family in The Gambia.

Mariama lives in Basse, a village with 112 children who live in 12 family houses.  Growing up fast, her family has updated us that dancing is her favourite past time, and that she loves music.

In the letter we received the SOS Mothers explain: “words may not be enough to express how much we feel, smiles may not be enough to show how much we appreciate your generous support…. We can be proud of our joint success and believe that through courage and hope we can achieve our goals”.

What a lovely message to receive at the beginning of the year… to fuel our determination to support many more children like Mariama to have the fair start in life they deserve.

Thank you for being part of creating a wonderful happy childhood for Mariama, the other children we support, and the new children we’ll meet in 2013!

Flying the Flag for Social Enterprise

Wow!  We are delighted that from babies with love is an England finalist for Start Up of the Year at the Social Enterprise 2012 awards!

We are shortlisted amongst some great social enterprises, from an organization creating jobs for ex-offenders to one that works to widen access to top universities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

So we’re feeling very honoured!

Many people don’t know what a social enterprise is… I hope that very soon it will be a widely understood term… in the meantime we hope we are helping spread the concept through our online shop.  In addition to from babies with love, I bet you’ve come across a social enterprise, but maybe without realising it… Have you ever bought a Big Issue? Been to the Eden Project? Watched Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen?

Social Enterprise UK describes social enterprises as “…businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment.  They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community.  And so when they profit, society profits”.

from babies with love is a social enterprise because we sell baby clothes and donate 100% of our profits to fund the care of orphaned and abandoned babies.

We, like many social enterprises, are accredited by the Social Enterprise Mark. This means that from babies with love has proved it is genuine against independently assessed criteria for social enterprise. The Mark provides assurance that our profits are used to improve the lives of orphaned and abandoned children, acting as a guarantee that from babies with love is trading for people and planet.

The social enterprise sector is growing and my bet is in time we’ll have many more options to buy products – that we would buy anyway – from social enterprises.   The thing I love about that is it’s a win-win-win situation:

-       You enjoy your product,

-       You get the added bonus of enjoying knowing the profit is helping society,

-       Society is better off as a result of your purchase.

Fingers crossed that from babies with love progresses in the Social Enterprise Awards!  But most of all I hope all the amazing social enterprises, across all the award categories, will continue in their successes – so that in no time at all buying from social enterprises is just an everyday part of what we all do.

Hurray! We’re a finalist at the MumpreneurUK Awards!

We’re delighted to announce that we’re in the final line up of the national Mumpreneur Awards, an annual ceremony that celebrates parents throughout the UK who manage the difficult task of juggling business with family life.

from babies with love has been shortlisted for the Best Green Business Award, which is open to businesses that provide eco-friendly or ethical products and services in the UK. Having reached the finals of The Mumpreneur Awards, from babies with love founder Cecilia Crossley said “we’re working hard to be green, to make a positive social contribution and to break new ground for social enterprises – so I’m absolutely delighted we’re a finalist for the Mumpreneur Best Green Business Award.”

We recognise that there are impacts from the raw materials (particularly the growth of cotton), the manufacture, the distribution, the use and the disposal of our products. We work hard to minimise our environmental impacts and maximise our social impacts by:

	giving all our profits to charities supporting orphaned and abandoned children
	selling products made from organic cotton – which we believe are better for our babies and better for the planet, recognising that we’re fundamentally reliant on the land and soil, so should look after it
	working with suppliers whose values we support
	promoting the social enterprise model
	using only recycled, recyclable and compostable packaging and materials where we can
	encouraging our customers to minimise their environmental impacts from the way they buy and use the products
	encouraging the recipients of our products to pass them on to friends, family, or to charity, once their babies have grown out of them.

Find out what you can do to help further minimise environmental impact and increase social impacts of our products here 

Judging our entry will be a panel of top entrepreneurs including Glamour Magazine’s Editor-In-Chief, Jo Elvin, but we have to wait until 30th September, when the winners will be announced at The Mumpreneur Conference.   This event is open to all parents who juggle family and business, and also for those interested in taking the plunge and starting up. Tickets can be purchased through the MumpreneurUK website, where you’ll find a whole range of resources and information for business mums.

So, fingers crossed for the finals!

Double satisfaction and double benefit

“from babies with love provides a double benefit” says Florenece Phiri, SOS Children’s Villages Zambia Director.   “Customers will buy a gift for a baby here, and the profits are a gift to another, vulnerable baby elsewhere.”

Last week I met Florence at the English Speaking Union, a charitable organisation in a beautiful old building in the heart of Mayfair, London.   We discussed how from babies with love’s profits will make a huge difference to orphaned and abandoned children.

Florence explained that the diference a children’s village makes is enormous.   “When an orphaned or abandoned child comes to the village they are given a family – brothers, sisters and a mother to look after them.  They have a home and can begin a new life.”

For example, Florence described a baby girl, Namwene, who was adandoned at a police station.  The policy brought her to a children’s village and since living there she has blossomed.  Now 6 years old, Namwene is a beautiful girl who has grown in confidence – Florence recalled a day that she came in to her office and cheekily took some biscuits!  Such confidence is an enormous change, to a child who was once vulnerable, but who now has a home and is free to walk around the children’s village, her village.

from babies with love is supporting the building and running of a nursery school in a new children’s village in Chipata, Zambia.  In Chipata, the main town in Zambia’s Eastern Province, there is a particularly high rate of family breakdown and child abandonment.  Around 1 in 6 of all children there are orphans, compared to 1 in 12 in the general Zambian population.

The new village will give a safe and  loving home for up to 130 children, and hundreds more will live there in the future.   The nursery will provide day time care for 90 children, from the children’s village itself and neighbouring communities.  Florence explained that “the nursery is important for early childhood education.  It follows the principles of learnng through play, so that the children have confidence as they grow up”.

Our profits will help all these children receive the fair start in life they deserve.  from babies with love sponsors individual babies to be loved and cared for in an SOS Children’s Village, and is supporting Chipata Village to build and run the nursery.  Florence left with a final message to pass on: “buy baby clothes at www.frombabieswithlove.org because you will have double satisfaction!  You buy a great quality, organic product, and at the same time you help a child somewhere else – a double gain – please do that!”