mum to mum – simple messages of support
Where do I start??
Last March I spent the most amazing and joyful week of my life in Northern Kenya as part of the Become A Friend team, meeting the most beautiful children and their open hearted, welcoming traditional Maasai parents. A truly unique experience. Really respectful, strong communities – we could learn much!
This trip was life changing – meeting kids who, in the face of such hunger and poverty, just keep smiling, singing, playing and dreaming of a future, and handworking mums who (backbreakingly) build the family home, fetch water from miles away, and basically keep their malnourished kids alive. Their lives are NOT easy but they, like their fellow mums all over the world, just get on with it. Craft, mainly beaded jewellery like what you see in this photograph, is really the mums only way of supporting the family – trading what they make for a goat, or just some maize, at market 25km walk away. With no electricity the mums make jewellery in daylight hours – one beaded bracelet can take two to three weeks to make!
Through our modest BAF project we support a handful of schools in the community – information sharing between Maasai, UK and Irish school children, creative projects, positive role model initiatives (especially for the girls) and environmental and health awareness education. Strengthening the role of schools in the community is key to ensuring more families send their children to be educated, and by keeping the girls in school we can delay early marriage (and early pregnancy) so the girls are older and can make better life decisions for themselves.
But I would also love to do something for the mums, in so many many ways ‘the forgotten ones’. Going to school was not an option for them, most were married from as young as 14 to a man with possibly more than one wife, and more than one family.
So where am I going with this?
I hope to travel to Northern Kenya again this coming September and would LOVE to bring simple Messages of Support from mums like you, all over the world to these extraordinary ladies. Rather ambitious I know, but worth a shot. I will gather all your comments on this blog post, bring them with me in September and sit amongst the mums to read them aloud, have a giggle, and a hug :)
Will you take part?
Please add your beautiful voice with a message from/to mums
Just [read on] to see more gorgeous photos and leave a short message for the mums in the comment box. Alternatively you can email your message through to me :)
thank you, Michelle xxoo
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a maasai mum’s home, made of mud and sticks
the maasai mums love to sing & dance (i joined in and looked like a funky chicken – great amusement)
the kiddos :)
15 Comments to “mum to mum – simple messages of support”
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Although we live on different lands, speak different languages, and experience different lives, I know we all feel the same love for our children.
I have read that you are industrious, protective, caring, and very brave. I offer you my admiration, optimism, and hope for you and your children.
Helen (mother of two girls aged 5)
You are beautiful mums with beautiful children! I wish you all many blessings for your children, your families and your homeland. Though we live many miles apart, we all want the best for our children. May all of your dreams for your children and your own lives come true!
No matter where we live, no matter how our circumstances are the love for our children crosses the universe.
I have a deep respect and admiration for your dedication to make your children’s lives better and the care you give.
Greetings from a mother of twin girls age 9 living in South Africa.
You are all an inspiration and a blessing. You work so very hard for your children – they are so beautiful. You should be very proud of yourselves.
(Well done for your great work Michelle)
All mums throughout the world are united in wanting the very best they can provide for their children.
Often here in the UK we get caught up in the material world, but ultimately children want love; laughter and fun. This it seems you provide in abundance. I wish it were easier for you to also provide the other basic essentials for your babes.
I wish you love, light and peace. x
We have everything we need to live comfortably on this side of the world. Everything material. But we are still unhappy. We are lost. We still don’t know where we are going or where do we come from. We have lost the connection with nature. We busy ourselves so we don’t have time to think. We feel alone.
Raising kids is tiring and overwhelming in many ways. There is little or no support for many mums here because everyone is so busy with their own problems, trying to have more material things.
I am sure you could teach us so much. About the true meaning of just “living” and sharing and being part of a community that supports each other. Because at the end of the day we are all the same.
I would love to visit you and learn from you. Hopefully some day.
Love,
Beatriz
Michelle has shared her beautiful photos from her last trip with us and all I can say is ‘wow’. What a colourful bunch you are! In Ireland we insist on wearing black or grey – perhaps it’s something to do with the colour of our skies…;) Your children all look very beautiful and very happy – mothering is a hard job wherever you live, but happy children are the ultimate reward.
Hello. I am a mother of two girls and a son. I live in England where the weather is usually cold and wet. I loved looking at these photographs and reading about your lives. Your clothes and jewellery are beautiful and your children are so happy. You have a fantastic community which we don’t have a lot of in England. You show us the importance of people helping one another.
Debbie
Your children are so smiley, your community is so strong and your love is so obvious.
Our world could learn so much from yours.
You are amazing ladies, amazing mothers, amazing examples.
Xxxx
I love seeing the pictures of your clear and brilliantly coloured land. I left a sometimes sunny California to live in mostly cloudy, rainy Ireland, and sometimes I miss it. But more importantly, I am now where my friends are and we give each other support as mums all around the world do. I raise three boys, 5 yrs, nearly 3yrs, and 6 weeks old, with the help of my husband and his family. I also play music and teach violin. Playing in the orchestra gives me incredible sense of who I am as a person still, not just as a mum. Every time I tie one of my babies on in a sling, i think of mums all around the world doing the same and continuing this great work of life.
All the best to you and your families and may you find happiness in the small, everyday matters of life. Heather
Being a mother is a gift and and a challenge no matter where we live. Our worries, our hopes and our dreams for our children are all the same – for them to be healthy, safe and provided for. When I look at the photos shared with us, and I see the smiles on children’s faces and I know that there is joy in their world. Be strong, be brave and most importantly, give your children the gift of love!
Looking at your photos, I realise how lucky I am. I can walk to the shop for food, water, clothes, medicine and anything else I might like. And I take it for granted. I can’t imagine the worry you carry in your heart for your children’s next meal, clothes to keep them warm, their health, their education, their future. I don’t have that worry. I’m lucky.
But I can imagine the love in your heart for each of your children, and how every breath you take is a breath striving to make sure your children are happy and safe. I never take that for granted, no mother should.
We’re miles apart, geographically and materialistically, but we’re hand-in-hand when it comes to our children, our hearts beating in unison for our very reasons to live, our children.
I see love, laughter and hope in your children’s eyes – I think these are the greatest gifts a mother can give her children. I wish you the capacity to give your children love, laughter and hope always…
Grandma in US
In so many ways, we are worlds apart, and yet in others, our lives are so similar. All any of us want is the best for our children. And what beautiful smiling children you have! From one mother to another, I wish you the best.
You have such richness and colour and light in your lives. May you stay surrounded by such life and such beautiful children and grandchildren all the days of your lives.