The Mothers Union held a World Wide gathering to celebrate 150 years of ministry in Durban, South Africa
The MU of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa passed a resolution three years ago that each Diocese should have an “Eco-champ” and they have been working with the Green Anglicans to develop the programme.
At the Global Council meeting, Mme Matito, the PCDC (Provincial Community Development Coordinator) shared about the project. Eco-champs are involved in climate smart food gardening, disaster response and preparedness, community clean ups, tree planting, water saving, plastic recycling and many other activities.
The project has gone from strength to strength! At the gathering in Durban a resource of bible studies on disaster preparedness (flooding, drought, fire, heatwaves and displacement) was launched and each delegate received a copy of the booklet . The resource can be downloaded here : Disaster Management Online
MU Eco-champs were also selling products made from recycled plastic such as mats and other items.
Rev Rachel Mash, Green Anglicans Coordinator was a panelist on the topic of “Climate change and Migration” and invited the MU Eco-champs to end the panel by singing “Join us, join in, Mothers Union in changing lives!”
Here is the text of her talk:
In 2022 the City of Durban experienced devastating floods – over 500 people died and 40,000 displaced. One family lost 9 people . some people never found the bodies stil in emergency accommodation. Recurring floods have damaged the infrastructure that had been mended. Floods since then have again damaged infrastructure that was being mended.
Last year Mthatha had terrible flooding, a kombi of school kids was washed away. Mothers Union made a good decision to support some families with entire uniforms, shoes, school stationary – the mother was crying tears ..
But it is not enough to just support when the disasters come, how can we prepare for disasters? The Mothers Union of ACSA have launched a program called Eco-champs in partnership with Green Anglicans. We are launching the Bible studies on disaster relief that you can find in your goodie bag.
What is an eco champ?
What is the first commandment? It was not the commandments given to Moses, they came generations later – it was the commandment given to Adam and Eve
Gen 2: 15 “Work the Earth and look after it”
Look at your logo – the earth!
We must look after Mother Earth or Mother Earth cannot look after us
The Mothers union Eco – champs are learning and sharing a training called “Farming God’s way “ which is climate smart kitchen gardens, what do you do when there is hardly any rain – for instance : remembering that God is the first gardener! Adam and Eve were put into a garden to work the land and look after it!
For example: Mulch is Gods blanket. Mothers are now growing food and able to sell it to assist with electricity, school fees. Others are drying fruit to sell, and keeping bees to sell the honey. Other are making small items out of recycled plastic. What a lovely picture of an old MU member, bed bound – with a huge loom on the bed, family and neighbours cut up plastic shopping bags for her into strips and she is making the most beautiful mats!
This not only helps the family in the rural area
Many young women leave the rural areas for studies and their first job and send money home to the family in the rural area.
Families in the rural areas are battling with climate change as the rains are failing, it is becoming harder to grow vegetables to they start asking for more money. This puts her at risk of looking for a sugar daddy – or what is strangely called a blesser!
Climate change is one of the things that pushes people off their land – 2023-2024 worst in 40 year in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Mozambique cyclones increasing in frequency and strength – leads to increased migration.
South Africa in the lead up to the elections has seen a violent wave of violence, were many people have been chased away from homes, either because of violence or threat of violence. For example a 7 year old Zimbabwean told they would burn her family if she came back to school. The family left that same night.
Widow, orphan and foreigner are mentioned 19 times in the Bible – these are the vulnerable trio without a support system.
How can MU reach out to our communities? A clinic in Nomzamo found that they had a lot of mums from Malawi where tiny babies were dying of choking. The reason? They were trying them to early on solids – they had no mothers to help them, they had not integrated into the community. How can the MU reach out to such young mums?
150 years later, we face different challenges than Mary Sumner – we face climate change and migration. My question to you today is this:
As Mothers Union – will we care for Mother Earth? Find climate smart ways to grow our food, prepare for disasters, clean our communities? and care not only for the widow and the orphan but also the foreigner?
