Creative Answers for Women

Very early in our mission work in Tharaka, Kenya, I observed how excited village women were about coming together. We regularly invited women by word of mouth to come to the campus for teaching and a meal. The response surprised us with a large group of 300 or so each time. We had no chapel building at that time so we met outside under the trees. Women sat on the benches we had and others spread their kanga (fabric wrap) on the ground for themselves and their baby. They would move around as the sun changed during the day. They sang enthusiastically, listened, asked questions and enjoyed the treat of a meal. Most walked for over an hour and some two or more hours.

Our clinic was treating large numbers of women with young children. The sad situation though was that quite a number of children and babies deaths could have been prevented probably by education of a mother.

I had the idea of starting Mothers Clubs for health education and Bible study. My husband put my name on the project so it is still called Mama Linda Mothers Clubs today. I organized the clubs with 30 moms in each club for a duration of six months. One of our staff nurses taught the health lesson adding a scriptural devotion at the end before tea and bread were served. We had 3 clubs a week. The health lessons were on varied diseases or health concerns that mothers needed to be informed about. For example one of the lessons was on anemia and danger signs they needed to recognize. Not long after this lesson was taught a mother in a club recognized severe symptoms of anemia in her neighbors baby. She made immediate plans to get the mother and child to a clinic to get care. Nurses told the mother her neighbor had possibly saved the child’s life.

These clubs are still active today at the campus in Tharaka. A nurse still does the health lessons which have even branched out into nutrition, motor skill markers for older babies, and pregnancy guidance for new mothers. Now we have the added benefit of a female Kenyan missionary who does Bible teaching at these clubs.

Mothers Clubs began about 20 years ago and have certainly proved to be a creative answer for physical and spiritual needs of Tharaka women and children!