Sewing With Nancy

From near tragedy to treasure

that's how my Nancy's Corner guest describes how the nonprofit organization Hope 2 Others was created. Please welcome Karen Klemp... - Thank you. And also Jane Krogstad, who works effortlessly to help mothers and babies in eastern Africa and other areas of the country to survive hypothermia. Welcome to Sewing With Nancy. - Thank you so much. It's a pleasure being here. - Yeah. Now, Karen, you told me about the near tragedy that changed your life... Yeah. And became a treasure to others. Explain a little bit to our audience about that. Well, back in 1985, our daughter, who's now 33, was a near drowning in a pool, and I did CPR on her. She was at the UW Hospital on life support, and they told us that she would never-- they didn't think she was gonna live and that she'd never walk or talk. Well, after three days, she woke up, came off life support, and we had to reteach her to walk and talk. They said that maybe she wouldn't amount to much, but she is amounting to great things. She is walking, talking, driving a car. She works at the Y, and she's been on many mission trips with us. She's been to Tanzania, East Africa, Guatemala, the Philipp-- or she hasn't been to the Philippines-- Thailand, she's been to. So it's been a blessing. And so we started-- we wanted to do something. I had promised God, as a desperate mom at that time, with her life in the balance, I said I would go anywhere and do anything that he called me to if she'd-- let her live, and I know you don't have to bargain with God, but he answered our prayers. And so we had been invited to go to these countries. That's how it started. And my heart just... I just was very, very touched to be able to go. And you make kits that are available for mothers and to help their newborns. And, Jane, you have the contents of some kits that you take over in-- for your trips, and there's a lot of contents there. Exactly, we learned that a lot of babies in developing countries are dying from hypothermia in the first ten days of life, due to the inability to keep their body temperatures. So we came to their rescue by developing Hats 4 Hope. The Hats 4 Hope actually is in a-- we give a bag that doubles as a diaper bag. Sure. And you can see, anybody who packs one of these can write a message to the baby. So we really believe in that as well. Sure. And the basic necessities, we've got a hat, of course, diapers, cloth diapers. Sleeper, one or two sleepers in there. And you can use gently used sleepers. Gently-- new or gently used. - Sure. Clean. Clean. - Yeah, of course. We have some-- some burp rags here, another hat, and, of course, blankets. We need lots and lots of blankets. You know, blankets, 36" by-- or 44" square. Yeah, 36 to 40" square, approximately, works nicely to wrap a baby. And as you said, that-- those first ten days, Jane-- Jane, you're a cuddle person at a NICU unit, I believe. Exactly. - Mm-hmm. Karen is a... - Is a nurse? Registered nurse. - So you know all about babies. Right, right. - Yeah. And babies do survive off of that warmth, to hold them close and to keep them warm and reassure them that they can do that on their own eventually. Mm-hmm. Karen, tell us about you other kit that you have, because that's impressive... Yeah. - And so needed too. What we do is we also teach Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Breathe. It's a-- those are two classes that were designed and recognized by the World Health Organization. And so they each get a book. - I can take that. I'll just hold them for you. - Yeah, those are the two books. And so each of the kits-- they are birthing kits, and each of the birthing kits comes with a stethoscope, a bulb suction device, and a Ambu resuscitation bag and mask. And so-- and they also come with ten hats. That's our goal, is that every one will have ten little baby hats in them, so that every baby-- And they're fleece. - Yeah, they're fleece. And what's so... You ship them flat, as you were telling me. Yeah. And then they can turn them right-side out. Right. And two pieces of fabric, sewn... Yeah, she actually-- - Very simply. The person that designed this is a friend of one of my colleagues. Uh-huh. And it actually looks partly like a heart. Yes, and we'll have the pattern available so that you can send and can-- Any color. - Any color, just a-- Yep, just a variety. - Fun to make. And what a wonderful-- - Yeah. And you've been to Tanzania, Guatemala. Explain all the different countries you've serviced. Yeah, we've-- Our first trip, actually was in 2002, when I was invited to go, and my son, who's a teacher now, he was in college. We went to Tanzania, and my heart, just for those people-- and we have friends, uh, that come back and stay with us. And so actually, on a trip three years ago, we-- one of our friend's nephew got sick. And we were there, and they asked us to come. It was the middle of the night, and so we packed up. And in Tanzania, the roads are very bumpy. It's very hard to get to places. Took us 20 minutes to get to their house, and by the time we got there, the ten-day-old baby was dead, and it was very, very sad, so that really spurred us on to do this, the Hats 4 Hope. And I was talking to one of my colleagues, Dr. Julie Kessel, one of our neonatologists. And she was telling her daughter, and her daughter said, "Can we make kits for these babies?" Great. And so it was her inspiration that started that. Well, Karen and Jane, thank you for what you do. I'm sure the Sewing With Nancy viewers will help support you, make things, and thanks for being our guest. Thank you for having us. And thank you for joining us, and this wraps up our three-part program on "Precut Fabrics for Speedy Projects." If you'd like to re-watch this program, you can go to NancyZieman.com and re-watch four seasons of programming. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.