Basket Building for Change

This past Sunday, December 6^th, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism was alive with laughter and bustle, as the Faiths Act Fellowship hosted our first community service and education event in Montreal. Volunteers worked together to assemble baskets of winter gifts for a local women’s shelter and discussed the challenge of malaria.  Our coming together on behalf of women in our local community who need seek a shelter from violence and other challenges was especially meaningful as we marked the 20^th anniversary of the Polytechnique shootings. It was heartening to know that as we made bags of trail mix and cut scarves, individuals across Montreal and Canada gathered, remembered, and advocated for an end to violence against women.

Women around the world continue to face gender specific challenges. Imprinted on my memory is the smiling face of a young mother from the impoverished Malian community of Yirimadjo.  A baby strapped to her back, the mother greeted us from the entrance to her home, as I and two other fellows accompanied Project Muso’s head community health worker, Mah, on her daily rounds. Introducing us to the young woman, Mah explained that the woman had been pregnant with her most recent child when Mah first visited her home. Mah convinced the woman to seek prenatal consultations at the clinic as she entered her final trimester. However, when the time came to give birth, the woman could not afford to get to the local clinic, and rather than getting Ma, gave birth at home. Faced with a difficult birth and no professional care, the woman suffered an injury to her pelvis. Ma subsequently found her at home unable to walk and brought her to the local clinic for treatment.

Looking at the woman’s slender frame, as she carried her child, it was hard to imagine the pain she had endured in order to bring her child into the world. This young mother’s story highlights one of the countless challenges women in the developing world face in order to have children. The plight of malaria represents another, as pregnancy places women at higher risk of being killed by the parasite. The elimination of deaths due to malaria is women’s issue, just as it is an issue for humanity as a whole.  

Maya Smith

Faiths Act Fellows