Meet the good eggs dedicated to providing vital essentials to newborn babies and children living in disadvantage in SA.
Photo :: Mogg Visuals
Right now 23,500 children in South Australia are living under the poverty line. As a mum, hearing this statistic for the first time stung me right in the heart. Poverty and homelessness can create a dangerous home environment and parents struggle to provide their kids with life’s essentials.
Can you imagine a child going without clothes, toys, books and warm blankets? Visualise having just given birth and not even having a sanitary pad or a cot for your baby to sleep safely in.
Treasure Boxes provide all these essentials and more to families escaping domestic violence, or children going into foster care. And it all began after Rikki Cooke witnessed the challenges faced by children going into emergency state care, firsthand.
Photo :: Mogg Visuals
“In 2015, I was working for the Department of Child Protection and one afternoon I had four siblings who were all incredibly distressed and scared land on me — an eight-month-old boy, a two-year-old little girl, and her four and six-year-old brothers. For the next few days, we had nothing to occupy them; no clothes and no toys… nothing. So, I put a call out on Facebook for some help — the next day my porch was full,” says Rikki. From there, Treasure Boxes was born.
Photo :: Mogg Visuals
“We welcome pre-loved goods like cots, car seats, breast pumps, toys and clothes to our warehouse in Edwardstown where we clean them, conduct safety checks and quality control each item, before passing them out to families in desperate need.”
Photo :: Mogg Visuals
From humble beginnings, the charity has gained enormous community support — last year, they looked after 859 families, providing 2026 babies and kids with a year’s worth of clothing, bedding and other essentials, such as feeding equipment and nappies.
After meeting Rikki and her amazing team, we want EVERYONE to know about Treasure Boxes, so here’s how you can help…
You or your entire workplace can volunteer and get involved by donating your pre-loved baby goods, or pledge money — it’s all tax deductible.
“Five dollars a week for one year would allow us to buy a brand new cot and new mattress for a child who has been born into disadvantage, giving them a safe, warm place to sleep, grow and thrive,” says Rikki.
Hayley xx
Photo :: Mogg Visuals
