Supporting Refugees and Combating Bigotry

Last week I stumbled upon a campaign to distribute donated baby carriers amongst asylum-seekers in Greece, organized by a California-based organization called Carry the Future. I’ve had our old baby carrier hanging unused in our closet for three years, and when I looked into the work the group is doing, I did something I don’t ordinarily do and jumped on their bandwagon. Usually, it’s best not to send in-kind donations during a crisis, but rather to donate money to a reputable organization. In this case, these in-kind donations are fulfilling an immediate need, and CTF is delivering the carriers themselves, in person, on the ground to refugees traveling with babies and toddlers as they arrive by boat in southern Greece.

There are well over 3,000 volunteers now organizing local donation drives around the world and helping CTF to do this very valuable work. If you’re in the Vancouver area, here’s how you can donate a used or new carrier and get involved with the local donation drive.

I was on the radio this morning along with the PR director of CTF, and we had a very long conversation with the host, not only about the great work CTF is doing, but also about the challenging responses many Americans and Canadians are having to our countries’ commitments to receive refugees into our communities. Usually radio interviews are about three minutes long; this one lasts nearly twenty. So click here and listen to it as if it’s a podcast, or catch the part I’m proudest of starting at 14:30 minutes in.

​Action + Craft is a newsletter about the intersection of art, craft and activism. Click here to learn more.