When I gave birth to my first daughter, I prided myself on my preparation. My husband and I visited the hospital months before my due date, took Childbirth classes, researched all our pain management options and developed a detailed birth plan that even included our wishes for daddy to cut the umbilical cord and instructions to not give our baby a pacifier. When the day arrived, we were warm, secure and surrounded by an incredible medical staff. My doula spoke words of encouragement and massaged my ankles, my husband held my hand. Monitors beeped into the night keeping pace with my daughter's heart rate. I knew I was cared for. I felt safe.
I would love to sit across from you this afternoon, to sip tea and to hear about the day you became a mama. Whether we first held our babies after childbirth or an adoption, we'd no doubt nod our heads and squeeze each other's hands, as we recognized a little of our own story in one another.
Mothers in the slums of Uganda, though? Well, they would have something all together different to share.
The Huffington Post reports “if women do not arrive at the hospital with a “Mama Kit — a safe birth kit containing gloves, a sterilized razor blade and a clean plastic sheet on which they can deliver — doctors can’t accommodate them.” The reporter continued, “each time I return I’m newly shocked by the avoidable tragedies unfolding within them — young girls who appear days after they’ve entered labor with stillborn children inside them, women leaking urine and feces due to horrific birth injuries, listless but hopeful future mothers whose unborn babies suffer from fetal malaria.”
So, how does a mom in North America stretch her heart and her hands halfway around the world to help a woman in poverty care for her child? Is there a way?
The Lulu Tree is providing an answer. As a non profit organization passionately dedicated to preventing tomorrow's orphans by equipping today's mothers, they work on the ground in Katwe Uganda sponsoring mothers and equipping them to care for their children while sharing the good news of Jesus to the slums future generations.
The Mama Kit initiative seeks to provide all the necessary supplies for mothers to enable them to receive hospital care for the birth of their children. You sweet friends, can gather these supplies and ship them, host a packing party, pray over these mamas and send them hope. Perhaps you can be a part of supplying finances for a group to compile these resources in Uganda, or work with your church's women's group or teens to make Mama Kits as a service project. The options are endless, simple and very inexpensive by western standards, but the for the mamas in Katwe? You will be offering up the greatest of gifts : an opportunity to experience the safety and peace you longed for when you birthed your own children and that you dream for your own daughters.
How to Create a Lulu Tree Mama Kit
Would you consider joining me in giving to the mamas of Katwe this Christmas?
With Great Hope,
Kristen
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