After six years of hard work, Pamela Rees, aka the Nappy Godmother, has created a sustainable business supplying and washing cloth nappies in Palmerston North and Whanganui.
The Marton-based mother and grandmother now supplies 12 daycare centres and recently washed her 100,000th nappy.
"I sat there and thought good on you, girl. You've done this, you've worked hard for it."
Photo: Jamie Coupaud
Modern cloth nappies don't involve folding or pins like the old-fashioned ones, and they're as easy to put on a baby as disposable nappies, Pamela tells Jesse Mulligan.
They're also way better for the environment and better for babies, she says.
When Pamela first started her nappy service, a lot of clients were older first-time mums looking for sustainable options - now many younger parents have the same focus, she says.
Nappy Godmother cloth nappies Photo: supplied
Many daycare centres are keen to use cloth nappies, too, yet it's not convenient for them to wash their own.
That's where Nappy Godmother comes in.
Pamela, who still works part-time as a security guard and has two children at home, had no previous business experience when she set up Nappy Godmother but got a head start from an "amazing" small business course at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
"I just jumped in feet first and just made it work."
"I've always been a person that will go forward and keep going… I'd always dreamed it would be a sustainable business that I could live off and to get here is amazing.
"The outcome I would love [for Nappy Godmother] would be to expand into other areas and employ like-minded people like myself who want to do it."
