Happy Mother’s Day

Precious and Difficult

Finding the Balance in Motherhood

Before the sun has a chance to rise, children around the world are climbing onto their sleeping mothers’ backs, pulling their hair, and begging for breakfast. That is, of course, if these mothers have not already been up for an hour or two catching up on chores or nursing an infant who has yet to understand the difference between night and day. Such moments of motherhood, both sweet and exhausting, precious and difficult, exemplify the whole of the experience—the balance. Motherhood is full of contradicting experiences and emotions. With joys come sorrows, with intensity comes boredom, and with great importance comes little recognition. And still, mothers press on.

They persevere because without mothers to nurture, educate, and love our children, what hope do we have for the future? It’s the children who will care for us all when we are old, who will decide whether to start wars or make peace, to exploit the vulnerable or to empower them. Mothers hold powerful positions to influence the world. And so, we at RMF want to say thank you to all the mothers who use their power to love, nurture, and grow their children into what we need more of in the world.

Motherhood is Beyond Giving Birth

Stepping into the Lives of Children

RMF wants to thank all women who engage in the act of mothering. Every woman who cares for a child in need of compassion, teaching them to be kind, strong, and intelligent, is a mother in her own right. Mothers step into the lives of children who are motherless. Such as those caring for and educating the orphans at Mama Kevina Comprehensive Secondary School in Eastern Uganda. Or those at the Nepal Children’s Organization orphanages supporting children, some of whose parents were killed in the 2015 earthquake.

Caring for Mothers in Return

Treating the Whole Person

With an understanding of the immense role that mothers have in the care of our world, RMF acknowledges the great need to care for mothers in return. In keeping with RMF’s commitment to treating the person as a whole, we are seeking to meet the specific needs of mothers in areas of nutrition, economic stability, and access to quality prenatal, antenatal, and postnatal care.

First, we are striving to help make mothering possible by decreasing the maternal death rate in places like South Sudan, where maternal mortality is the highest in the world at 1 in 7 live births. Through Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery, we’re training nurses and midwives to facilitate healthy pregnancies and safe deliveries.

Next, with the help of highly motivated midwives and health care providers, RMF is providing nutrition education, prenatal care, safe deliveries, and postnatal follow-ups in places such as the Panyadoli Health Centres in Uganda, Swat Health Centre in Pakistan, and in our more than 30 health centers in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bidibidi, Uganda.

A woman, successfully treated by CNEs, smiling with her husband and healthy baby girl

In India, RMF’s Community Nutrition Educators (CNEs) educate families and communities about maternal and child health by using flipbooks in one-on-one and single family counseling sessions. CNE Akila discovered, diagnosed, and facilitated the treatment of a woman’s severe anemic condition, saving the lives of the woman and her unborn child. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl in January of 2017. Read her incredible story here.

Furthermore, at the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Bweyale, Uganda, mothers are achieving economic stability through entrepreneurial skills learned at the RMF initiated Panyadoli Vocational Training Institute.

RMF has empowered me to manage my motherhood responsibilities. They gave me an opportunity to train in Hairdressing at Panyadoli Vocational Training Institute. The skills I acquired have now helped to earn money which is helping me to provide for my children.-Akongo Mary Avalino

RMF is working to empower mothers around the globe to be healthy, economically stable, and to live up to their greatest potential. Join us. This Mother’s Day, consider giving to RMF so that together we may tip the balance of motherhood toward prosperity and joy.