BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — More than six years in the making, and Every Bottom Covered is still going strong, by helping families in three Western New York counties to make sure their babies never go without, Erie, Allegany and Chautauqua Counties.
"This is something that is creating a healthier community and a healthier Buffalo, so that's exciting for me. So, it's very rewarding just to know that another family doesn't have to go through what I went through, and I'm just proud to do the work, quite honestly," Raziya Hill told Pheben Kassahun.
Hill is the founder and executive director of Every Bottom Covered.
As a single mother, she struggled to sufficiently diaper her son.
"I went through every low income service that we have here in Buffalo and there was nowhere the diapers were offered. Even after 13 years, after my son made it to high school, there was still nowhere the diapers were offered," Hill said.
Hill started the nonprofit in her living room, putting aside money from her paychecks to start the organization.
It has now grown to have warehouse space with Eight Days of Hope, in Buffalo.
Since its inception, Every Bottom Covered has helped more than 3,000 families and has distributed more than 1 million diapers.
"People do diaper drives for our organization and that's always very helpful. People raise money for us. We get donations like from our national sponsors like, National Diaper Bank Network and Baby2Baby. Then, we take those and distribute them to our partner organizations," she explained.
This is all thanks to advocating and being able to build community support, and a vision to make Buffalo, strong.
"Diaper need is the lack of sufficient supplies to make sure that your baby is healthy. Lacking in diaper need creates, in my opinion, chaos. Children go to the emergency room for things that are preventable like yeast infections, urinary tract infections and diaper needs. Parents can miss up to four days of work because children can't go to childcare," Raziya said. "Children can't go to childcare without diapers. I think that we don't think about it if we don't experience diaper need. You don't think of the long term effects of it on the entire community. I hope that Every Bottom Covered is raising awareness here, on how we can all do our part."
According to the digital parenting resource page, BabyCenter, the cost of diapers per month is $70 to $80, for disposable diapers. Infants require up to 12 diapers a day for the first year and toddlers need about eight, which is a total of about 2,500 to 3,000 diapers a year.
Hill told Kassahun the organization has something special up its sleeve this holiday season!
"We're hoping to do a little something for Christmas but that's a surprise, but we're hoping to do a little something outside of diapers for the Christmas season, but I'll keep you updated on exactly what," Raziya Hill said.
How to get diapers:
- Visit us at the Delavan Grider Community Center for enrollment of all eligible children in the household under 3 years old.
- For agencies interested in partnering for their clients, contact at info@everybottomcovered.org.
