First time mum, Miriam Tan at the Vision Sisters event.
When radio station 89.9 LightFM recently partnered with World Vision to hold the Vision Sisters ‘Greatest Mother’s Day Gift’, I knew it was going to be a great night. Three hundred women giving up their Friday night to pack clean birthing kits together to help save the lives of babies in Uganda. Amongst the flurry of work and conversation, I had the chance to meet a couple of inspiring women.
First time mother Miriam Tan told me she wanted to get involved after realising that not all new mums around the world have access to the medical facilities she had at her first child’s birth.
“It’s pretty exciting to be spend an evening surrounded by women who are ready to give back to women who don’t have what we have in Australia. Giving birth to Victoria just highlighted to me the amazing facilities we have in Australia. Great facilities, great staff – everything was clean and sterile.
“It made me realise that there are so many women in the world who don’t have that – and how fortunate I am to be living in Australia and to have had my daughter, Victoria, here.”
Holly Boniface (centre) packing birthing kits at the Vision Sisters event.
For another woman there on the night, Holly Boniface, the experience of giving birth in the front seat of her car brought home the reality of giving birth without any medical facilities.
“I gave birth in the front seat of my car, so I know what it’s like to go without. I really feel for women who have nothing to give birth with. Being a Vision Sister is about joining with women all over the world. As women we get women, we get each other, and it’s just such an exciting thing to think that I’m connected to women all across the world.
“When we pack birthing kits we put in plastic, string, gauze, soap, gloves and a scalpel into a small bag. It’s an easy thing to do and yet those very kits save lives. It’s not just handing over money, you feel that you are actually practically helping someone by getting your hands into packing that kit.
“I hope that a mother in Uganda can not only feel supported practically, but can see the love that went into packing these kits and feel that they’re not alone in this journey. I hope they feel like they’re joined into a group of women around the world who know what it’s like to be a mother: that it’s scary and exciting, that there’s highs and there’s lows but that they’re not alone.”
Chatting with women at the event highlighted that motherhood isn’t the only motivation that gets people like Miriam and Holly excited about Vision Sisters – but it is a powerful one.
Join us to provide practical help to our sisters and their children around the world. Gather a group of friends, work colleagues or church members and help us reach our target of fundraising for and packing 60,000 clean birthing kits and helping World Vision train community health workers. To register your group or find out more, please visit the Vision Sisters website.
Mariska is a mother of three young children and is the founder of Vision Sisters. She created Vision Sisters after being moved by the conditions faced by her sisters giving birth in countries like Uganda.
