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Most babies in the United States have warm clothes to wear, plenty of diapers and other baby necessities. In fact, many people would take those items for granted.

Unfortunately, infants born in third world countries often want for many of those simple things.

With that in mind, the Webster City Rotary Club took some time this week to help make things a little easier for moms in a Nicaragua to care for their children.

According to Tami Hejlik, president of the Rotary Club, the local Rotarians assembled 60 layette bags filled with cloth diapers, towels and wash clothes, lotions and baby wash, baby nail clippers, grooming items for the mothers and some warm baby blankets. The layettes are bound for Chinandega, Nicaragua.

"The layettes are part of a greater effort by Rotary to alleviate poverty by working with a Catholic Mission in Nicaragua. The project has grown to include more than 50 Rotary clubs across the Midwest," she said.

The effort has grown in Iowa due to the activism of Steve Thorpe of the Waterloo Rotary Club. Hejlik said he has promoted the efforts in Iowa since 2002.

Hurricane Mitch devastated communities in the northern mountainous regions of Nicaragua in 1998, causing mudslides, killing thousands of people. Many of the survivors were moved to live near the Chinandega dump. Hejlik said Thorpe learned about the suffering in 2001 and helped to deliver shoe boxes filled with school items and clothing to children in a newly constructed school near the dump in 2002.

In the years since that first trip, Thorpe and his wife have worked to involve thousands of partners who have donated school supplies, medical supplies, books, fabric and other items.

"The Webster City Rotary Club chose this project to give young mothers , who are often abused and living homeless in parks. Individual members contributed $10 for each layette and the remaining costs are paid by Rotary fund raisers," she said.

Contact Anne Blankenship at editor@freemanjournal.net