tell me more
Mats for Uganda came about through a partnership between Fruitful Vineyard Childbirth Ministry in Kirksville, Missouri and Healing Faith. Fruitful Vineyard is a Titus II ministry to share the journey and help women understand more about God’s role in their fertile years from pre-conception through menopause. We focus on Christ-Centered Childbirth Education and Support to the entire family.
Healing Faith is the Segner family who are missionaries to Uganda, Africa. Jason and Kari will be moving with their 4 children from their home in Texas in January 2012 to help as much needed support to an established medical clinic. Kari will be providing life saving midwifery care to pregnant women in Uganda and their precious babies.
Fruitful Vineyard’s role in this partnership is to educate others about their mission, provide any physical materials we can that will help women and infants there in Uganda which may include but is not limited to funds, gathering supplies for medical and other physical needs, and being a prayer warrior for the women and infants and children in Uganda as well as for the Segner family.
Currently we are working to provide sleeping mats for pregnant women, mother’s with young infants and small children as well as orphans that Kari and Jason will see and meet the needs for on a daily basis in Uganda. Plastic bag sleep mats are very desirable as they offer padding and are more comfortable than a bare floor or other mats. They roll up and can travel well. These mats can be sanitized quickly, they are bug, and disease resistant and because of their health benefits some places in Africa are using them as hospital beds as they last for a very long time and can be adequately cleaned between patients. They are made from 100% recycled material.
We are commiting at this time to have 250 mats made by June 2012. We are looking for:
- Crocheters who will make the 4ft x 6 ft mats
- People who will save plastic bags (we will need 200-300 mat)
- Plarn workers (workers who make the plastic into yarn)
- Financers who may not have the time but would send funds to get these mats to the pregnant women and young children in Uganda.
This is such a little luxury to give to a pregnant mother and/or child. Please contact us if you’d like to work on a mat individually or you’d like to organize your own group such as a church group or group of students would like to have a Mat for Moms Crochet Party.
Hello Everyone! This is Kari Segner and I can’t tell you how much your support, time and efforts are an encouragement to Jason and I with our work here in Uganda. We just finished our first week here and were able to meet the village that we will be working in and building the new clinic. Thank you for everything and please keep praying for these women and children.
I know this is going to sound like a Negative Nancy, and that’s really not my goal. But I am wondering – why not just hire some Ugandan women to do this and twice as much good by giving them jobs? Just wondering if there’s a reason that wasn’t considered. Sometimes we step in too much to provide things for people when we really should equip them to do it themselves. It’s a more long lasting impact.
Hi Tiffany! It would be really great to organize something that would allow the Ugandian women to be paid for crocheting mats but to be completely honest, I don’t know a lot about the circumstance that Kari and Jason are encountering in rural Uganda. I don’t know if plastic bags are available in abundance they way they are here. And honestly, I don’t know who would educate and pay these women. The people participating in the mats project are volunteering their time, resources and money for shipping. A more sustainable long-term method for supplying the mats could be explored for the future though… Thanks for bringing up this good point!