THE Hunter has been urged to donate new or leftover nappies to local families in crisis and facing financial hardship, poverty, homelessness and domestic violence.
Chief executive of The Nappy Collective, Sarah Witty, said the not-for-profit was aiming to collect 250,000 nappies at 230 collection points during its two-week Collective Campaign, which runs to July 31, to combat nappy stress.
"Nappy stress is when you don't have enough nappies to change children as often as they need," Ms Witty said.
"Nappies are essential but often something in the family budget does have to go and so families have to choose between buying food, medicine and nappies and so they won't change children often enough to keep the baby clean - or have to resort to things like t-shirts.
"If you have seen a child with a nappy rash you know how difficult it is to manage.
"Many children might miss daycare and childcare because some, usually the budget friendly ones, you have to supply your own nappies, so the children miss out on social interaction and the cycle of disadvantage continues."
Ms Witty said The Nappy Collective was founded in 2013 and the first collection of donations was distributed to a domestic violence organisation.
"Parents and children are usually leaving those situations with the clothes on their back," Ms Witty said.
"We also collected nappies for the floods in Queensland and NSW, again where people were leaving with the clothes on their back and were not focused on things like nappies, but had an immediate need because the children were being carried out of floodwaters with nothing else.
"It's been all over the news about the cost of living and the price of lettuce, but we give the nappies to community partners who speak directly to families in crisis and they say the need for nappies has been much greater than ever before."
Donations of newly purchased disposable nappies; leftover opened packets of disposable nappies that are no longer needed; disposable swim nappies and nappy pants can be delivered to collection points including Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery's office, ASR Recruitment Newcastle, Babyshop in Adamstown, Kindy Patch Eleebana, Kindy Patch Bonnells Bay and Community Kids Morisset.
People can also donate 'virtual nappies' through a QR code at the collection points and on the website.
Ms Witty said volunteers were needed to help pick up the donated nappies from collection points, sort them into sizes and distribute them to community partners.
She said prior to the pandemic the organisation had about 700 volunteers, but this dwindled to around 40. She said Ms Hornery's July 10 Facebook post calling for volunteers saw 55 people in the Hunter register their interest, including eight who committed to helping out.
She said the region now had 10 volunteers, some of the 250 across the country.
She said volunteers could donate as much or as little time as they wanted, in skilled or unskilled roles.
Details: the nappycollective.com
