Who Are We?

We are a cloth diaper charity that provides complete cloth diaper kits to families in financial need. The organization headquarters is located in Ottawa, Ontario. One Diaper Canada is fully staffed by volunteers assisting with cloth diaper collection, repair and sanitization, distribution and cloth diaper education.

What Do We Do?

Our goal is simple: to help alleviate financial burden by providing complete cloth diapering kits to families in need. The cost of diapering a single child in disposable diapers in North America totals $3000+ (with an average cost of $100 per month in Canada [1]. For families experiencing financial need, this cost is often out of reach and can result in caregivers not changing diapers often enough or reusing dirty disposable diapers. This serious problem has been labelled ‘diaper need.’

Diaper need is defined by the inability for caregivers to provide clean diapers to an infant or child and has grave implications, including: poor child health (urinary tract infections among other health problems), severe diaper rash and blistering, poor child mood, poor maternal mental health, and a resulting barrier to maternal-child bonding [2].

Cloth diapering is a cost-effective alternative to using disposable diapers and has many benefits beyond the lower cost. Unfortunately, there is a high up-front cost because of the need to purchase all the diapers, covers and other supplies (~$400 minimum) right at the outset. For families already facing budget restraints, this is often not an option.

How Do We Do It?

In order to help alleviate financial burden, One Diaper Canada provides gently used cloth diapers to families who indicate that they have the need and desire to use cloth diapers. Our cloth diapering kits include cloth inserts, diaper covers, diaper liners, detergent samples, stain removal bars and other cloth diapering necessities, for distribution to families in need throughout Ottawa and surrounding regions. We work with already established local social service organizations, local moms groups and churches who refer to us families that they believe would most benefit. Once the families have gone through our short intake process they receive their cloth diapering kits as well as the educational resources to begin cloth diapering.

We are very committed to ensuring that the families have access to the proper educational resources to have success in cloth diapering. We include an information pamphlet in the box that the family gets with their cloth diapers – this helps to get the family started with cloth diapering that very day as well as providing extensive information about cloth diapering for future reference. We also make available this and additional resources through our website and provide an email address that beneficiaries can write to at any time and is monitored 7 days a week by experienced cloth diaper educators.

[1] The Diaper Bank of Toronto. The Bottom Line… http://www.diaperbank.ca/tdb/The_Facts.html; 2014.

[2] Smith et al. Diaper need and its impact on child health. Pediatrics 2013;132: 253-259.

CRA Charity Registration Number: 806786398RR0001