Many impoverished areas lack access to anything but communal bar soap to clean the pajamas – which actually spreads germs rather than eliminates them. In fact, nearly half a million babies die in their first month due to unhygienic conditions.

Therefore, keeping the pajamas clean and germ free is equally as important as the pajamas themselves.

Which is why we created the ‘Baby Care Wear’ package. Each donated pajama is wrapped in a package made entirely of water-soluble, non-toxic, biodegradable soap paper.

Even the ink washes away since it’s the same kind hospitals use for baby footprints.

All it takes is a bucket, water and a small piece of the package to clean the pajamas and keep children warm and healthy.

First, a soap-sheet manufacturer, mainly for promotional items used in beauty and hotel brands, supplied the paper. Next, we carefully tested several batches to find the right thickness and determine which paperweight would dissolve easiest. During the process, we noticed that it only took a small amount of paper to wash each pajama, meaning each package could be used for multiple washes.

To make it easier to determine how much paper was needed for each wash, we used a die-cutting machine to create 18 perfectly, perforated squares. That’s more than enough soap to last through the first, delicate months of a newborn’s life. Afterwards, to ensure we didn’t pollute the environment with adhesive or other materials, we used a heat-sealing machine to melt the paper together around the edges, creating a package. Lastly, we hand stamped each package with the Bennison logo, a message and illustrated instructions.

The soap-packaged pajamas were distributed by partner relief agencies in Western Africa and women’s shelters throughout the U.S.

To date, more than 4,000 pairs of pajamas have been shipped. The goal is to double that number in 2016.