Most women in Narumu live in extreme poverty. As farmers, most of their income is seasonal and when it arrives must fulfil many priorities such as food, house maintenance and seed and other input for the next farming season.
Pregnancy is a critical period in woman’s life and in the life of her child. Because of this extreme poverty, most women in rural communities like Narumu bring their children into the world without the basic items they need to care for them in the critical early months of their lives.
When a baby is due to be born, its mother must often first travel up to fifteen or more kilometres to the nearest hospital or give birth at home. When the baby arrives, it is wrapped in kitenge or a thin blanket that cannot protect it from the elements. Because women often cannot attend pre and ante-natal care due to the cost or distance, many mothers do not know much about contemporary approaches to childcare or basic instruments for it – instead they rely on traditional practices many of which have been improved upon. Some of the items they lack include bulbs to clear blocked nasal passages, durable washable diapers, towels or sturdy blankets. Women in Narumu know little about vitamins and balanced diets which leads to malnutrition and has long term effects on both mothers and their babies wellbeing and especially on the child’s development.
Tujenge Maisha has been working with the existing clinic and with mothers in the area to boost knowledge of health, nutrition and care of pregnant women and new born babies. During this period, we discovered that women were in desperate need of the most basic equipment to care for their babies.
Our founder Dorothy Mboya devised a care package that she handed out to a few women, contain vitamins, blankets, washable diapers, towels and other practical tools.
Further inspired the Finnish concept of baby boxes, Tujenge Maisha have started a “Bag of life” project to ensure that all pregnant women in Narumu receive a bag of life that contains all that they need for the first few months of a child’s life.
Like the Finnish baby boxes which have been shown to have made a huge contribution to the health of newborns, these bags of life will also help spread knowledge about how to best care for babies in terms of nutrition, early childhood conditions and disease, and basic care and hygiene.
To make this a reality, Tujenge Maisha is asking for your financial or in-kind contributions. The price of each bag is $60 but it’s value is priceless. Please click on this link to watch a video interview about Bag of Life and share it with your friends and colleagues.
