Gbaiima-Songa Rocks!
You made this happen! Thank you, thank you!
“I am bones…I am muscles…I am skin…We all work together…”
And here is a link to a photo album: Summer 2018: Gbaiima Songa
We met our goals:
We returned to Sierra Leone at the end of May, 2018, with a big agenda!
- Start a new class of Trainers: three trainers-in-training completed session one
- Train a new classes of MOMS Community Health Workers: 32 graduates!
- Strategize with MOMS Leadership Council about plans, including the Jamboree in November
- Meet with our in-country staff for planning and problem-solving
Cherilyn Porter, now named Gbonya by the people of her new home, endeared herself to the people by teaching well and listening to them. Cherilyn also has a new grandmother to add to her flock of us! We visited a village called Ngolahun, where we built a clinic and taught and have great friends. While there, we greeted the village’s “Mamie Queen,” who took a shine to Cheri and adopted her!
Cherilyn is MOMS’ youngest volunteer to teach a CHW class. Her experience as a high-school science teacher and her Ph.D. studies in Science Education prepared her well. Her experience in Sierra Leone is changing her approach to her dissertation….the wheels are turning as she considers her career choices.
November 2018— a Jamboree!
We celebrate and study at Jamborees. The women love them. We will also train a new group of Community Health Workers and continue the Trainer class. One of our favorite volunteers ever, Buffy Price, will return once again to celebrate with the women.
Buffy has organized a group of women to create soft breast prostheses. “Knitted Knockers” provide knitting and crochet patterns, and other seamstresses are making them from fabric. People who have had mastectomies have little or no access to “modern” prosthetics. We have seen women sadly pulling tattered socks or underwear from their bras. Our hope is to help them feel better about their bodies.
Newsletters
If you want to read more about our trips, you can subscribe to our newsletter, below. We send these out six or seven times a year.
Amazon Wishlist
Many of you like to support us with the specific items we need. And we love getting those packages! We set up a wishlist at Amazon.com for this. If you use AmazonSmile, MOMS also receives about .5% of the purchase price! How cool is that? https://smile.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/23TIOKIM25NM8
What is MOMS?
Briefly, MOMS is a humanitarian, non-profit agency whose mission is to improve maternal and infant health in the poorest areas of the world. MOMS' teams build capacity among the women in the rural areas. We teach the traditional birth attendants (their own choice of term) four things:
- To be the bridge between the community and the clinic system
- To make changes to solve women's health problems
- To provide evidence-based maternity care
- To teach their neighbors about women’s health needs, sanitation, and nutrition
For more information, see the MOMS Mission pages.
You can help!
If you want to work with us, see Volunteer! on this website. If you are not able to travel to Africa, remember that we need help with social media, fundraising, grant-writing, secretarial work, research, etc.
You can send MOMS a check, to PO Box 1656, Gualala, CA 95445. Or you can donate electronically. Just click this button:
Our Accomplishments - with your support!
Since 2006, MOMS’ teams have made 18 trips to Sierra Leone, ranging from two to 13 weeks per trip.
- Initial Training: 342 women in ten cohorts
- Continuing Education: 225 women have taken over a dozen classes
- Helping Babies Breathe: 32 people, including four instructors at the School of Midwifery in Bo
- Essential Care for Every Baby: 10 people, including the School of Midwifery faculty (this information is folded into our regular curriculum for health workers, so add 300 more learners!)
- Gardening businesses established: five groups
- Palm oil business established: eight groups
- Clinic built, supplied, and staffed
- Leadership Council established, and working to solve problems
- Three local trainers fully prepared to teach the Community Health Workers course
- MOMS Community Health Workers included in the District Medical Health Team
- Maternal or fetal mortality related to MOMS CHW errors: 0
We have also made two trips to Uganda to teach at Kitojo Integrated Development Association.