This week our girl Salima has been busy giving out fifteen Mama kits. She, along with her mother Jenifer, educate the women on pre-natal care and give the life saving MAAMA kit along with the receiving blankets, panties, soap, pads and wash clothes all in tote bags made by our training center instructor Takia.
Jenifer works alongside the government checking on, teaching pre-and postnatal care for mothers and immunizing babies. So she is the perfect person to speak to these ladies as a group.
We are so thankful to know everything is in such good hands when we are not there. And we count everyone of these ladies, both mamas and our workers, blessings in our lives.
A few months ago we gave out nineteen Maama kits. We are now seeing the healthy Mamas and their babies. So far only two have been girls! We are so thankful we are able to help these mothers. The clinic in our village doesn’t have enough supplies so they are grateful these women are able to come with their own.
“All in all the ladies have been greatful including their husbands, the husbands said that you really helped for mama kits, they said mama kits were so expensive and hard to get yet its so essential. But you save them”
We thank all supporters of The Mandate. You can see the end result of your donations and your prayers. The $10 donated saves the lives of these Mamas and their precious babies! And gives us the chance to spread the gospel while giving out the kits, along with education about the care of themselves during pregnancy and care for their babies. We give them out to 7-9 month expectant mothers. May the Lord bless you as you are a blessing to our ministry.
So far this month we’ve had four of the women we gave mama kits give birth! All girls!
There were two others that lost their babies that were stillborn, including a set of twins. We pray for those mothers but they thanked us for all of the other things in their kits that helped them so much.
One mama brought her baby born June 2 to see us last week. She was so tiny. She said she was so thankful to have the mama kit when she went to the hospital as they didn’t supply them.
Baby Katherine
Another had her 9 1/2 pound baby at home by herself! I couldn’t even imagine having to do that and be all alone. She was taken to the Dr the next day and mama and baby are doing fine.
Here are two more of the babies that were brought to show us, one was just born this past week and is our “Ugandan Granddaughter”. Her mother is one of our girls that went to tailoring school and will be teaching at our training center. She has a little time anyway to rest and be with her baby – we are under full lockdown here in Uganda. Takia and baby girl are doing well and at home.
A certain little girl was determined our Takia name her baby after her middle name Noelle. I don’t think they knew how to spell it but named her in R’s honor!
Nowelyn Blessing
And baby born June 7 is called Shemora. Her mother only had a midwife to help her so she was very very thankful to have everything she needed so a safe birth.
Baby Shemora
I thank all mothers who have received the mama kits for bringing their babies so that we could see. And so thankful they are all healthy and Mamas’ are happy! We will be having 25 mothers ready to receive their bags July 1 but since we are on lockdown they will be delivered to them individually.
Everything in the tote bag, including the important Mama kit plus other things a post natal woman needs. We are thankful to Takia that she got so many tote bags done before she had her baby!
We’ve had a mommy give birth last week. We aren’t able to talk too much to her yet, and I haven’t been able to hold her! The baby will stay inside until the umbilical cord falls off. They usually don’t bring them out for a month. We are thankful for good health for mama and baby!
On Monday we hosted twenty-four expectant mothers. We were expecting twenty-seven but some had already went into labor, one had a sick mother she was caring for and one had given birth the night before. (The ones that had already had their babies were still given the tote bags, we just took out the mama kit) They came so that we could give out the Mama kits that have everything they need when giving birth. Jenifer also gave a message to them about pre-natal and post-natal care. (This is what she does for the government.) She also tells them of the importance of immunizing their babies and family planning shots. She is qualified to administer both.
In Uganda (and other third world countries) a woman in labor is expected to bring her own supplies for birth. The hospitals don’t even get them the sterile instruments they need. The current maternal mortality ratio in Uganda is 336 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Infant mortality is 43 deaths per 1000 live births, with 42% of the mortality occurring during the neonatal period. Many of these deaths are related to either poor health of the mother when pregnant, not having regular visits to a doctor or unsanitary conditions during child birth.
A Mama kit has everything a mama needs for giving birth, and is all packed in a sterile package they are not to open until it is time to use. It has both a plastic sheet for mother and one for putting the baby on. There’s a scalpel and string to tie off the umbilical cord, and cotton. We have been asking $10 donations for the kit. That is at cost, we make no profit from these, we just want healthy births for mother’s and babies.
I have spent a lot of time on different projects to find materials but when you live in a culture that sometimes call things differently (I ask for a thermos and will never find. It’s called a flask). But during quarantine I can say something awesome came from it. I became friends with someone in Kampala that could send some things we needed. For five months we weren’t allowed on the roads. Only food deliveries or medicine. People even needed permission from their chairman and local police to go to the hospital in an emergency.
We still talk and he still gets me things I can’t get here, and when he found out we give girls kits and mama kits along with all the other things we do, he and his wife want to help. She is looking for fabric for me, he has gotten me the mama kits at a price that we can now give not only the mama kit but also a receiving blanket, pads for after delivery, soap, panties (knickers), washcloths and a very nice tote bag that our seamstress sews. I’m not one to be prideful but after years of trying to do as much as I can for women and girls this has really excited me and I am proud of myself! I am very thankful that meeting my friend at a terrible time during covid has brought about blessings I didn’t know would come. I am thankful God put us together. And I am so thankful to be able to do more for mothers. The mama kits are so important but other things get forgotten that they also need right after birth.
All of this plus money for the seamstress of the bags for the same $10!
I did tell them they better bring me babies to see after they’ve delivered. I’ve either bought mats, given transport money to get to the hospital or mama lots over four years and only two have ever brought their babies to see me!
Our tags are on the way to see on to the bags! We know it may be a small thing to some but for us and our Hope Ministries it is a big deal! We can’t wait to be able to have these on so that other expectant mothers may know where they can come for mama kits and education!These are 16”x18” Same fabric doubled. They look expensive! But cost about $1.50!Takia is a wonderful young lady. Just goes with the flow. She was working on forty girls kits and I came in and asked her if she could stop that and sew 30 tote bags – oh yeah, in three days! She just said “No problem” and went to buy the fabric. She had them done in two!
If you would like to support mother’s or girls please go to http://www.themandate.com 100% goes to the ministries, all administrative fees are covered by our board members.
His Grace For The Journey 