A Ballarat charity is calling for the community to support their cause against babies sleeping in non-ideal circumstances this Christmas.
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Eureka Mums launched their ‘sleep safe, dream big’ campaign to help their mission in providing families in need with essentials for the safety and well-being of their young children.
Operations manager Trinsa Lewis said a cot was one of the most important items a baby needed for physical safety and that parents needed for peace of mind.
“A baby needs a safe place to sleep and it allows parents the freedom to know their child’s in a safe location in their cot sleeping so that they can go and do other things around the house,” she said.
“There’s no chance of them rolling over and suffocating.”
Ms Lewis said Eureka Mums were in desperate need for safe cots this Christmas which is their busiest time of the year.
“I’ve currently got five cots that are needed now for babies that are either born already or are due within the next four weeks,” she said.
“I’ve got clients that they’ve got babies that are due but they haven’t got a cot to put them in when they get when they get home from the hospital.
“They worry a great deal about what they’re going to bring their child home to and we believe that every baby deserves a safe place to sleep.
“They deserve an equal start in life regardless of what their family situation is.”
Ms Lewis said babies without cots slept in non-ideal circumstances. “They will end up co-sleeping on a couch probably or on cushions on the floor.”
Ms Lewis said donating $140 to the charity allows them to purchase a new cot and mattress at a reduced price.
Eureka Mums also accepts old cots if they meet Australian safety standards which require their manufacture after 2005.
Ms Lewis said the charity accepts a wide variety of goods to help their mission. “We take donations from the public, car seats and baby furniture, and we distribute it to families in need throughout the Ballarat area by case workers.”
The charity helped more than 600 families in Ballarat with essentials for babies in the past 12 months.
Tax deductible donations can be made at www.eurekamums.org or by visiting corner of Spencer and Gray streets, Sebastopol.