There is joyful excitement this month in Mother’s Heart as five young mothers graduate from vocational training courses provided by Mother’s Heart partner organisations Open Arms and SCARO and begin work with fair hours and wages.
This is no small achievement in a country where 30% of the population is below the poverty line and few favours are granted to women with a crisis pregnancy. Working extremely hard to overcome challenges in literacy and gain the ‘soft skills’ suitable for employment, the graduates are ready for work.
Most women entering Mother’s Heart have minimal education without work skills. Their best hope is often factory work or the risky life of Karaoke bars, where they can expect to work 10 to 12 hours a day, without holidays, for wages from $50 to $80 per month. These are harsh conditions for a single person let alone a woman attempting to raise a child.
Mother’s Heart funds its women to attend the training programmes of Open Arms and SCARO. Putting its motto “From Training to Enterprise -From poverty to Freedom” into practice, Open Arms trains under privileged young people in a variety of occupations. The Mother’s Heart women have just completed a 9 week cooking and 4-week cleaning course where they learnt a range of skills, from customer service and producing Western meals to personal hygiene and keeping a restaurant clean.
Two more Mother’s Heart’s women have completed SCARO’s one week cleaning course. The beauty of SCARO is that through its extensive employer network, it guarantees job placement and follow-up for each graduate.
A daunting moment for many graduates is the job interview. A Mother’s Heart’s staff member goes with them and asks the questions they still don’t quite dare to ask; ‘If my baby is sick am I allowed to ask for time to care for her?’ "What public holidays am I entitled to?"
Four Mother’s Heart graduates are beginning work in February while their babies are cared for at the Mother’s Heart Day Care (Little Lambs). They will receive starting wages from $90 to $100 for approximately 40 hours per week, two with organisations and three with private families.
One woman was spotted during her training to have the ability to teach other women and has been taken on as a trainer at Open Arms. Another will have the opportunity in the future to express her creative flair through learning to produce cakes and sweet delicacies.
Each of these women and their babies have a future vastly different to the one scripted for them. They are working and assured of providing for their babies and themselves.
You and I know how inconvenient the timing of labour can be. In the lead up to Christmas, MH had three very vulnerable women in labour.
I was torn between the festive activities that I value; parties, wrapping presents, making eatable treats for the family, and the intense needs of women in labour and preparation for the MH Christmas party for the clients. My ‘Christmassy’ activities were shoved aside. I could feel myself slipping from “joy to the world and peace on earth” to simply resentful.
Christmas is many things to many people. It is Good News, maybe a festive time with friends and family, but for Mary, a 14-year-old teenage girl who found herself with an unplanned pregnancy, it was surely also a scary time.
Being pregnant before marriage in many cultures brings stigma and judgement. As I ponder on the girl Mary, in labour on a day that changed the course of history, it is easy to think of the women and girls we serve at MH. It is a privilege to be part of their lives and to see their precious babies being born. I rediscovered Christmas in the mess of labour and birth and somehow thankful once again, I was ready to be a part of God giving Himself in love. Two of the babies were born on Christmas day.
By the way I did make the parties and festive activities, so I was doubly blessed this Christmas.
Two Board members speak of Christmas with the staff, mothers and babies of Mother’s Heart.
For God so loved the world that he GAVE......
Margaret Posnett
Sharing the Christmas celebration with the staff, clients and other board members of Mother’s Heart was a wonderful experience. It was a simple time, like spending time with family.
Philip Scott
One of the board members shared the story of Jesus’ coming, staff and clients told stories of Mothers Heart and motherhood. Mr Nara tied everything together by reiterating that we are family; together we’re here to help one another, for that that is what brothers and sisters do when they love one another.
It was a good Christmas experience where the core was love, listening to and respecting each other’s stories, giving presents to mothers and babies and of course eating together!!!
The babies were beautiful; handed around and admired by everyone and very much a reminder of our awesome God...He gives.
Christmas Eve at Mother’s Heart
Bob Toan, Chairperson of MH board
As a Board member we usually meet at 'meetings'. But here I was on Christmas Eve with 33 women cross-legged on the floor and 28 babies on their laps.
It was a real privilege to hear the women speak of their appreciation of what MH staff had done with and for them – especially a woman with a physical disability who spoke so clearly with enthusiasm and tears.
The Christmas story of Mary - the 'engaged' girl who became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and her cousin Elizabeth, was just right for these women.
Katrina Gliddon, Country Director
We are so excited this year to have the opening of our new childcare facility called “Little Lambs Daycare”.
Our new daycare provides sustainable childcare options for the women in our program.
We are also proud to have received official approval from Cambodia’s Ministry of Social Affairs, and are up and running in a beautiful facility.
Being a single mom in any country can be financially difficult. In Cambodia, it can be quite overwhelming. Because of the cost of daycare in Cambodia, most of the moms could spend between a third and one- half of their entire salaries to childcare expenses. As a result, the majority of them would be unable to earn enough to pay for housing and food for themselves and their baby.
Short-term, Little Lambs allows the women/girls in our program to place their infants at the daycare while they are receiving vocational training. Long-term, Little Lambs allows them to work and maintain their jobs. By providing them with sustainable childcare options, their self-esteem is strengthened because they are financially independent in the community.
" Directors Note" Mothers Heart has been blessed by amazing individuals and organizations who have given generously to support little lambs day care , who have also given their time, talents, gifts and experience to make the day care a reality for the women and their babies. We would like to acknowledge these people and give them the appreciation and praise they deserve. Mother's Heart recognizes that being in partnership with others and working together is a wonderful privilege. So thank you to all involved.
