I received a bulk e-mail from the president of March of Dimes today thanking us for the contribution we made to their Hurricane Katrina fund from Will's memorial fund. I thought I would share what she wrote about how they are using the money down there. These are specific activities being funded:

• Providing prenatal care and counseling for pregnant women and organizing and deploying outreach workers and trained health professionals where needed.
• Obtaining a mobile prenatal care van to bring care to pregnant women and babies in shelters and others who lack access to regular health care facilities.
• Continuing to develop new, updated health education specifically designed for pregnant women and for new mothers displaced from their homes.
• Expanding the March of Dimes program to provide support and comfort for the families of sick and premature babies in hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in affected areas.
• Delivering multivitamins with folic acid to women of childbearing age and pregnant women to reduce the risk of neural tube defects.
• Making infant and child vaccinations available for hospitals, schools, shelters, clinics, and in other convenient locations.

They also have a March of Dimes weblog that offers firsthand account by the organization's director of NICU Family Support of her experiences in the days immediately after her arrival in the Gulf region in the days after Katrina hit.