By India Espy-Jones ·Updated May 14, 2026 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Before CARE, “care packages” didn’t even exist. A term coined by the humanitarian organization in 1946, the first-ever care packages (15,000, to be exact) were sent to starving civilians in France during WWII. Since then, it’s been a term used to describe packages of comfort and necessary care. And, as of this week, a salon partnership with Isan Elba’s Beauty Forward.
“I connected the dots and realized what we were doing at Beauty Forward was in a way, a modern day reinvention of their exact concept created 80 years ago,” Elba tells ESSENCE exclusively. As the founder of the non-profit movement redistributing beauty and hygiene products to underserved communities, Elba introduced herself to their team at last year’s CARE gala.
“Next thing I knew, we were creating a full on event around a cause I truly believe in,” she says. On Tuesday afternoon, the founder returned to Atlanta, the city she grew up in, to host her first-ever Beauty Forward event outside of New York City. This time, in partnership with CARE to provide packages to mothers and their Black Maternal Health program.
According to Gabby Dirden, CARE’s Director of Implementation, US Programs, “maternal mortality in the United States remains unacceptably high, especially for Black and Indigenous women who continue to face systemic barriers to quality care,” she says. Helping close deadly gaps in care, “we are deeply grateful to Isan Elba and Beauty Forward for their partnership and commitment to advancing equitable maternal health outcomes for women and families across the country.”
Held at Atlanta’s Gathering Spot rooftop, the CARE PACKAGE® Salon began with an opening remark from the president of Morehouse School of Medicine, Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, FACOG. “This is everyone’s issue,” she told the room, explaining how, as a Black mother herself, she’s seen the importance of this cause from a personal and professional standpoint.
With Elba’s mother, Hanne “Kim” Nørgaard, in attendance, “it feels extremely full circle to bring my mom, who still lives in ATL, to an event in support of an initiative that can help women just like her,” Elba says. Following Rice’s statements, a panel discussion with women in the maternal health field and a program participant provided real life insight into the stakes of serving the health of Black mothers and birth workers. “It was amazing to see their passion and expertise in real life,” Elba reflects.
Loading up care tote bags, the CARE PACKAGE® was full of brand new products like Touchland hand sanitizers and fragrances, Oribe hand soaps and hair masks, sensitive shampoos for babies, and Lanisnoh birthing products. When asked about her “why”? “The long answer, society has been continuing down a longdecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/05/DSC_9994-scaled.jpg" alt="Isan Elba’s New Beauty Forward Partnership Is Serving Black Maternal Health" width="400" height="266" />TOPICS: Beauty Forward black maternal health Isan Elba
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