something from the CGOA

At the keynote speech for the CGOA conference, Rita Weiss mentioned a new iniative that Warm-up America has started. It is crocheting (or knitting) caps for newborns in foreign lands. Apparently, these babies are very small and would wear a cap the size of a preemie cap. There's a whole package involved with it. They suggest a letter to President Bush regarding the situation of newborns.
here's the link:

Click here: Save the Children: Advocacy: Caps to the Capital

At the risk of sounding heartless and wicked, I'm not sure how caps will keep the babies from infection or diarrhea. Yes, it will keep the babies warm, but there's a lot of other problems that also have to be overcome. Even in the USA, with a lot of expensive technology, preemie sized babies have a difficult time making it. Lots of the babies will continue to have problems thru out their entire lives - even with all that technology and medicine can do. I agree to giving the hats in principle, but I don't think that's all that should or could be done. One problem is lack of surgical knives to cut the umbilical cord. You can see that having a contaminated surgical knife would cause massive problems for the babies.

I don't have any alternatives to suggest, I wish I did. And I'm not saying everybody should or shouldn't do it. (The link gives you the patterns you should use for the caps.) I'm just saying this problem is a bit more complicated then crocheting hats. If I find or figure out anything a little different on this subject, I'll post it. Hopefully there's a group out there addressing the other needs.