We are the Babbs family. Sue, Simon & Matthew visited Madagascar in July 2014. We fell in love with the country, people and wildlife, and keep returning!
This is the final report from the St James the Less / France team. We are amazed by how many areas of the life of the Diocese of Toliara we were able to touch in just under three weeks. We invite you all to look at your skills, talents, and interests to see if you could help the Diocese too.
Marcy Allen, Sue Babbs, Emily Nell Lagerquist, Jacky Lowe, and Maggie Simmons meet monthly on Zoom with Reverend Nolavy, Mlle Harisoa and the Women's Center Committee. All but Marcy were in Toliara in July, and it was wonderful to be able to meet with the women in person.
It was an exciting visit, as the June and July mission trip teams had brought with them items to make Days for Girls (DfG) washable reusable menstrual kits, including: 1561 cloth drawstring bags, 5316 DfG shields 3175 DfG liners
These had been sewn by women in northern Illinois, USA. The women in Toliara were paid to sew the other items needed to make complete DfG kits. While we were there we helped unpack the 13 rolling duffles. So far 2128 regular size kits, and 111 heavyflow kits have been assembled, with more sewing of the outstanding kit parts planned in the near future.
Maggie went with Rev Nolavy, Mlle Harisoa and Mme Josianne to distribute some of these kits in Saint Luke's church, Ankilifaly on Friday afternoon.
The happy recipients of the Days for Girls distribution!
Since March, we have all been discussing the idea of developing the Diocese's own menstrual kits, which will be called Freedom Pads. This has evolved from feedback from the women on improvements they wanted to make to the DfG kits. The DfG kits work better for girls than for women. Sue developed new patterns for longer products (to reduce leakage), and we sampled different backing fabrics to reduce the products slipping in the women's panties. Many years ago DfG replaced plastic bags with sewn waterproof bags in kits, but still kept large drawnstring bags to contain everything. So smaller, neater bags, using less fabric were also sampled. These will be made in two sizes, one for girls' kits and one for womens' kits.
The women test the various new products over the intervening months, and came to the meeting on Thursday morning to report on what they had discovered. Various further improvements were suggested, and will be sewn and tested, until everyone is satisfied with the new Freedom Pads. It was wonderful to be able to talk freely with the women and hear their feedback, and feel that we are moving towards a better product.
The local maternity clinics have also asked us to make kits totally in white, which will enable the medical staff to better assess the loss of blood after birth. This would not be allowed using DfG kits, so this is another step forward.
We also discussed the new teaching materials which we will then need. It has been decided that in the next few months, Dr Avril and midwife, Tantely, will join with Rev Nolavy, Mlle Harisoa and Sue Babbs to prepare new training material for
girls who have not yet started menstruating
girls who are just starting their periods
women and girls who have been menstruating for a while
women who are pre-menopausal, and women who are going through the menopause.
Once these materials have been accomplished we will then consider preparing other materials on information for men and boys, childcare, family health etc.
We then moved on to teaching the women how to use the new cutting mats, quilting rulers and rotary cutters. This will enable the women to more easily, quickly and accurately cut fabrics for the menstrual kits. When they have bought some craft knives, they can also use this approach to cutting paper for bead making or quilling.
In the afternoon, and on Saturday morning, we worked on cloth baby diapers. The women had asked Sue earlier this year to research a pattern for them. They are very excited to make these as they think there will be a good market for them.
Rev Nolavy will be trialling the diapers and liners on her baby, Fahasoavana. We are hoping that terry towelling will make good liners, as this can readily be bought at the local market.
Pray for us to find a source of waterproof fabric which has attractive patterns.
On Friday morning, Maggie was able to step in for Sue who was ill, and teach the making of cords for cinctures (the rope worn by clergy and others over the cassock alb).
Again this was something the women had asked to learn, and Sue had been able to find a good video on YouTube which Maggie had already watched, and had downloaded to her laptop.
Maggie also spent time with Harisoa setting up a new laptop for the Women's Center and Fiadanana (Toliara Child coordinator) to help him understand how to use the new software for child sponsorship.
On Sunday, Sue was installed as a Lay Canon at the Cathedral.
The women had sewed this beautiful cope for her.
As Lay Canons, Sue & John Griffin are invited to Chapter meetings, and have varied responsibilities in the Diocese for communications, work with the women, finances, economic development and child sponsorship.
After Maggie & Sue had left, Jacky continued with her teaching of cookery to the women, encouraging them this year to use the gas stove in the inside kitchen.
Their latest session involved making pizza bases and topping them with sauted vegetables, sauce and cheese.
They also crushed peanuts in a pestle and mortar and added them to cooked pumpkin to make a nutritious meal with rice.
Neny Holy (Bishop Samitiana's wife) reports that the Diocesan Mothers' Union conference at Manja was a great success, with so many practical messages for the spirit, mind and body.
For example one of the member is a dentist, so everybody now knows better how to brush their teeth in order to avoid toothache!!!! Also Emma Gibbons from Reef Doctor came to talk about mangrove restoration.
We had lots of fun, dance and singing with the Mothers' Union members from all three Archdeaconeries, including women from some of the very newest churches. THANK YOU LORD!!!
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