BUFFALO, N.Y. — WGRZ first profiled Raziya Hill in 2017, shortly after she started her organization Every Bottom Covered out of her living room.
"I started because I was a single mom and I knew what it felt like for my child to go without an adequate amount of diapers. And it's just something that no family should have to do," Hill said.
She said she grew up in a working class family, graduated from Nardin Academy and was working in banking at the time, but she considered herself in the working poor. Buying diapers for her son, was a struggle.
Once he was out of diapers, she turned her attention to helping others facing those same challenges. So she used her own money to buy diapers and deliver them monthly to families in need. That small act of charity has turned into a 501c3 charity called "Every Bottom Covered" which now helps over 750 children each month.
"I'm so proud of the work that we're able to do. We've helped well over 5,000 children, with well over 1 million diapers and pull up since 2016," said Hill. "I had no idea when I first started this that this would be a possibility for us."
Every Bottom Covered is working to address diaper need across all eight counties of Western New York to raise awareness of diaper need by providing clean basic hygiene needs to underserved families and advocating for them.
Hill now uses warehouse space to keep thousands of diapers she acquired through grants and donations, and now she operates her diaper banks with two part-time employees and many volunteers in the Delavan Grider Community Center, and 4 other locations in Erie, Niagara, Allegany and Chautauqua counties.
Families can come in once a month to get 50 diapers or 25 Pull-Ups per child, plus wipes and feminine hygiene products.
It's a huge help for Rose Ippolito, who is now raising her six month old great granddaughter. At $80-$100 a month, she says diapers just aren't in her budget.
"It's outrageous, the expense of raising a baby who was displaced from her home. For them helping us out, it relieves me a little bit financially," Ippolito said .
Hill says more than a third of all families in Western New York experience diaper need. It was exacerbated during Covid-19. It was highlighted in the aftermath the 5/14 Tops mass shooting and she stepped in with a diaper drive to help the East Buffalo neighborhood in need. The need is increasing once again with an influx of asylum seekers.
"It is not just the urban issue. It's not just a rural issue. And it's not an issue for foreigners. Poverty doesn't have a look," Hill said.
Hill left her banking job to work on Every Bottom Covered full time and lobby in Albany and Washington. She recently was awarded $1.3 million in federal funding for a two year grant to create 4 more diaper banks in Wyoming and Genesee Counties.
"Even with that, there's still so much more to do," Hill said.
She's continuing to lobby congress for The End Diaper Need Act of 2021 (S. 304).
She says it's not just parents affected by diaper need, as it hurts the entire economy. Without enough diapers each day, infants and toddlers are at risk of skin infections, open sores, urinary tract infections, and other conditions that often send them to the ER, and would otherwise be preventable. Caregivers are also forced to miss work when they don't have enough diapers to send with the child in daycare.
Mostly though, she wants to serve as a beacon of hope and that it's possible to overcome adversity, and then pay it forward.
"I just wanted to help. I just knew my "why" was nobody should have to feel like this, and taking that, that burning in my belly. I'm grateful. I don't know wherever it takes me, I'll do it with open hands of gratitude, and excitement," Hill said.
To help fund the work of Every Bottom Covered or to volunteer, click the link here.
If you need diapers and want to sign up for the program, click here.
To nominate someone to be featured in the Selfless Among Us series, email Melissa.Holmes@wgrz.com
To see other stories featured in the Selfless Among Us series, click the videos below.
