Making Caring Count November Newsletter Issue 3#10

Trends and innovations

The Butterfly Trust: a true game-changer for in-home care. The Butterfly Trust is a private charitable trust in Kenya that seeks to facilitate provision of trained carers to support individuals and their families that are affected by serious illness or injury. The trust sources, trains, introduces and supports a strong network of qualified carers, from finding work within the community, to continuing with their own critical professional development. The Butterfly Trust’s mission is to provide a dependable caring resource to family members by assisting them to keep their loved ones at home as long as possible, surrounded by the natural care of family and friends. bit.ly/3Astzpm

Magnolia Mothers Trust (MMT) is shifting the dialogue around what it takes to create pathways out of poverty. Aisha Nyandoro, the founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson, Mississippi, is making waves in the fight against generational poverty by taking a unique approach: she listens to the needs of those affected. After talking to mothers in her community, Aisha realized that many of their struggles could be addressed simply by providing financial support. This led her to create Magnolia Mother's Trust in 2018, an innovative program that gives Black mothers living in affordable housing $1,000 a month for a year, no strings attached. Plus, each child gets a college savings account. The idea is straightforward: empower moms by giving them the financial means to make choices for their families. This approach has had a transformative effect on over 400 women and their families, improving their finances, parenting, health, and education. As she prepares to launch the next group of participants, Aisha is also challenging common misconceptions about poverty, particularly those tied to race, gender, while advocating for meaningful policy changes. bit.ly/3YBOChd

Birdie: the homecare technology of the future. Birdie is a leading UK-based home healthcare platform helping the care community deliver personalized care at home. Birdie’s all-in-one solution facilitates millions of care visits every month, providing home care providers with essential tools to deliver better quality care and streamline daily operations such as care management, rostering, finance and auditing. In addition to its desktop software, Birdie offers an app for care professionals to manage care delivery and a Family app that offers loved ones peace of mind. bit.ly/3YvDAtH

News that made headlines

Melinda French Gates announces $250 Million open-call funding opportunity to support women’s health. Melinda French Gates has launched Action for Women’s Health, a $250 million global initiative to fund organizations focused on improving women’s physical and mental health, especially those that may have been overlooked. This new initiative is part of her larger $1 billion, two-year commitment to improving women’s and family issues, which she announced after stepping down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Her company, Pivotal Ventures, is leading this effort, which also includes $200 million for US-based women’s rights groups and $20 million in grants to global changemakers she admires. Organizations interested in applying for Action for Women’s Health funds need to register by December 3, with funding awards of $1 million to $5 million to be announced by the end of 2025. bit.ly/40wbjG5

News from Africa

Valuing the unpaid: How Kenya can elevate domestic work to drive economic growth.

In Kenya, women spend an average 4 hours and 38 minutes daily on unpaid care and domestic work, compared to just over 1 hour for men, according to 2021 Kenya Time Use Survey by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. This disparity limits women’s financial independence and hampers economic growth. To achieve gender equality and economic development, the Kenyan government, with UN Women’s support, is developing the Kenya National Care Policy to address the care crisis. This policy aims to integrate unpaid care work into economic policies, reduce the care burden, promote equitable care distribution, ensure decent wages for care workers, and enhance their representation in policy-making. The policy also aims to boost public investment in care services, like childcare centres, which have been shown to increase women’s workforce participation. Kenya is at a pivotal moment as demand for care services increases. Failing to address the care crisis threatens economic growth, social equity, and gender equality. A well-supported care economy has the potential to generate millions of jobs, boost GDP and empower women. bit.ly/48vJTSR

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News from around the world

Investing in care: Paving the way for gender equality and empowering women and girls on International Day of Care and Support. If women’s unpaid work were given monetary value, it would surpass 40% of GDP in some countries. Globally, women and girls spend more than twice as many hours as men on unpaid care work, limiting their ability to fully access rights and opportunities. Women, particularly those from marginalized groups, bear the heaviest burden of this underpaid and unpaid labor. The world needs to address the gap between essential societal needs and current policy priorities, which fuels gender inequality and poverty. Investing in comprehensive care systems can reduce women’s time and income poverty, improve their labor force participation and boost the number of decent care jobs. As we observed International Day of Care and Support (October 29), we celebrated global progress towards recognizing the importance of care work and investment in the care economy, including new National Care Systems in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Panama, Kenya utilizing its first national Time Use Survey to shape care policies, and Canada’s $30 billion investment in early learning and child care. However, it also highlighted the ongoing challenges ahead. bit.ly/4fxVbbf

Understanding your brain: How the Orchid and Dandelion effect can shape personalized health approaches for older adults. As the global population ages, understanding variability in cognitive aging is crucial. Research introduces the “orchid and dandelion” phenomenon, highlighting that some individuals, like orchids, are sensitive to their environment, thriving and declining based on external conditions, while others, like dandelions, are resilient and maintain cognitive performance regardless of their surroundings. This insight highlights the need for personalized approaches to cognitive health rather than one-size-fits-all. By recognizing that people respond differently to their environments, healthcare providers can develop tailored strategies to support cognitive well-being in older adults. More research is necessary to refine these approaches, but this could significantly enhance the quality of life for many as they age. bit.ly/3UAqGcX

Business School report reveals rigid hiring and work policies undermine employee well-being, productivity, and company performance. A new Harvard Business School report reveals that millions of American workers struggle to balance work demands with caregiving responsibilities. Inflexible schedules and employers’ lack of understanding of these challenges make the situation harder. This lack of support is a major reason why employees leave the workforce, which hurts both workers and companies — often in ways companies don’t fully realize. The struggle to balance work and caregiving often leads employees to hesitate in discussing these issues with their employers, fearing negative impacts on their careers. Employers can address the marginalization of talent due to caregiving responsibilities by adapting their hiring practices to be more inclusive and acknowledging that employees may assume caregiving roles at various points in their lives. Encouraging open discussions about these responsibilities with supervisors can enhance employee loyalty and engagement, ultimately improving productivity and retention. bit.ly/4egY5Am

Something to think about

Rethinking parental obligations: The transformative potential of care ethics. Elissa Strauss’s thought-provoking article in The Atlantic explores care ethics, a philosophy that frames parenting as a moral, reciprocal relationship centered on shared vulnerability and mutual growth. This view sees caregiving not as a sacrifice but as a bond where both child and parent benefit through their close connection, redefining traditional views on independence and caregiving. This perspective encourages parents to see caregiving as a two-way, growth-oriented relationship, enriching both child and parent. It shifts focus from independence to interdependence, deepening the meaning of parenting. bit.ly/3C8y9t8

What we’re listening to

Podcast: Squeezed with Yvette Nicole Brown. In this seven-part series, actress and caregiver Yvette Nicole Brown looks at caregiving over the course of a lifetime, exploring the lives of everyday people, spotlighting the hardships and joys of caregiving across America. In this episode, ‘The Sandwich Generation in Quicksand’, we meet Stephanie Wittels Wachs, a mom of two and a primary caregiver for her dad who has Parkinson’s. On the surface, Stephanie manages her kids extracurriculars, visits to her dad’s care facility, work meetings, hikes with her husband and never-ending grocery store trips. But on the inside, she’s sinking into quicksand. Listen to episode here ?bit.ly/3YxkJyn

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