Heartwarming free breast milk cabinet of Nghe An couple

The family of Ms. Manh Thi Phuoc Ngoc is marking and rearranging the bags of breast milk donated by everyone. Photo: Chu Thanh

For more than 20 hours, Ms. Manh Thi Phuoc Ngoc (1988) and her husband Nguyen Van Binh (1988) drove with a styrofoam box to pick up free bags of breast milk and hand them to a family who had just adopted a child in Hung Hoa commune, Vinh city. This is also the work that Ms. Ngoc and her husband have been doing for more than 2 months now.

The free milk cabinet is hosted by Ms. Phuoc Ngoc and her husband and has the participation and help of mothers raising young children in Vinh city.

Ms. Phuoc Ngoc said that she started to cherish the first ideas about building a free breast milk cabinet 2 years ago. At that time, she was pregnant with her first child, so she often learned about child-rearing and was more aware of the importance of breast milk for the development of young children.

At the same time, she realized that many families with young children needed breast milk but did not know where to ask. On the contrary, there were people who had excess milk and wanted to give it away but did not know who to give it to. This was the reason why she conceived the idea of ​​setting up a free milk cabinet to help families.

All bags of milk given and received are marked with dates and scientific codes by Ngoc and her husband for easy tracking. Photo: Chu Thanh

“The idea was born 2 years ago, but it was not until early September that the free breast milk cabinet was put into operation. The reason is that, to preserve breast milk, a specialized freezer is needed to preserve it best. And if preserved well, breast milk can be used within 12 months.

Thanks to the support of breastfeeding mothers in Vinh city and the money the couple raised, the free breast milk cabinet was finally born," said Ms. Ngoc.

At first, the only people who asked for and donated breast milk were women in the city, but then the free breast milk cabinet became known to many people. Not only in Vinh, many mothers in Hanoi sent their milk to put in Ms. Ngoc's free breast milk cabinet. Besides, there were also families in Thanh Hoa and Ninh Binh who directly contacted to ask for breast milk. The number of people who gave and asked for milk has now reached dozens.

Ngoc's free breast milk cabinet operates effectively thanks to the help of "diaper" fathers, especially her husband Binh. Understanding his wife's meaningful work, whenever he knows where in the city there is someone donating milk, Binh drives there to pick it up and put it in a styrofoam box for storage.

The breast milk received will be classified by time, origin, and address with symbols for easy storage and delivery to families in need.

Ms. Ngoc puts milk bags in the freezer. Photo: Chu Thanh

Not only marking and classifying milk, Ms. Ngoc also records in detail each case to control the times of giving and receiving milk in case it needs to be checked again.

Milk from the free breast milk cabinet is always available; however, priority will be given to babies in difficult circumstances such as orphans, adopted babies or babies whose mothers do not have milk.

Most of the cases that came to ask for milk, they contacted and came to Ms. Ngoc's family to receive the milk. However, in cases of difficult circumstances, Ms. Ngoc and her husband and members of the breastfeeding association came to the place to give milk and money to support the child.