Monthly Archives: October 2017

Women Helping Women – From North Carolina to South Sudan

Patricia Shafer, October 30, 2017

Working together to clean out the Women's Center

Ann Evans and Days for GirlsMore than 70 teachers from schools in Old Fangak, South Sudan, will soon be in annual training that spans a three-month break. A challenge for women teachers is training days lost if menstrual hygiene products are not available . . . Dr. Ann Evans, Ellene Place, and volunteers in North Carolina are helping.

In the years we’ve provided education support to schools in East Africa, we’ve become acutely aware of difficulties women and girls have finding and purchasing menstrual hygiene products. We’ve researched a number of options and had informative conversations with DaysforGirls, RUMPS, and social enterprises.

We see a sustainable strategy emerging for 2018, but sometimes immediate needs just have to be addressed. When Sr. Barbara Paleczny of Solidarity with South Sudan emailed, “Please, is there any way to provide menstrual hygiene products for women teachers during upcoming training in Old Fangak?” the answer was “yes.” After all, Dr. Ann Evans started what’s become a Mothering Across Continents project under the theme “Women at the Center,” and she’ll be back in South Sudan in November.

Woman repairs mudhut homesOf course, Ann being the Ann we know and love found a creative, relationship-focused way to obtain the needed products. She arranged to meet Ellene Place, a former quilter in Pinehurst, NC, who switched to making #DaysforGirls menstrual hygiene kits. A small group of volunteers gathers in her home and sews together. Over lunch, Ann showed Ellene photos of Old Fangak village, its residents and women teachers who will benefit.

Let’s Meet at Charlotte International Airport

Patricia Shafer, October 26, 2017CLT International_Karen Kendall, Alishia Sullivan, Patricia Shafer_Oct. 2017

“Let’s meet at Charlotte International Airport”. . . so said Australian Karen Kendall of Shamida Ethiopia, Alishia Sullivan from the Abu Dhabi office of Squire Patton Boggs, and Patricia Shafer of Mothering Across Continents (MAC) returning to the US from Argentina. Of the three, I’m the latter – Patricia Shafer.

It’s not entirely unusual for me to have meetings in airports. I’m on the road or in the air a lot. For instance, I spent much of the month of October in Virginia expanding our NewGen Peacebuilders program with high schools and universities across much of the state. In November, I’ll visit school projects in Rwanda and South Sudan. I once met a potential partner from Colorado in the Nairobi International airport.

Karen and little boy Shamida EthiopiaBut this meeting – with Karen and Alishia was beyond special and full of serendipity. How is it the stars align such that three women hailing from, living in, and or working on four different continents can find themselves having coffee this way? A simple answer is that we are all involved in programs and efforts to support vulnerable children. A better answer, I believe, is that a force greater than all of us wanted me and other people to hear about Karen Kendall, who established Shamida Ethiopia. Through her daily management of Shamida Ethiopia Karen cares for orphans and vulnerable children, reunites street children with families and guardians, and empowers single mothers to care for their babies. Karen does all of this as the mother of Ruby, the daughter she adopted in Ethiopia in 2012.

Two boys Shamida EthiopiaOver the two hours the three of us spent together, I learned that Karen and Shamida Ethiopia includes clean, comfortable housing but also a spirit of helping where the most need arises. I am moved by Karen’s collaboration with nonprofit Hamlin Fistula Hospital which provides comprehensive care for women who suffer from physical impairments related to pregnancy and delivery. As Hamlin Fistula USA notes, “In the United States, serious maternal injuries during childbirth are rare, but in Ethiopia . . . problems such as obstructed birth mean that labor can last for several days, with life-altering consequences. Stillbirths are common and grieving mothers are often left with debilitating physical injuries such as obstetric fistula, a condition that renders women unable to control leakage of urine and feces . . . isolating and depressing.”

I am thankful to Alishia for setting up this meeting. I had just come off a long international flight and there they were, waiting in a tiny coffee shop at a busy airport. They opened my eyes and made my heart bloom.