On Saturday 11th May, in the lead up to Mother's Day, we paid it forward to Mother's to be.
Zonta Ipswich held our first community birthing kits assembly day. The Rotary Club of Ipswich were very pleased to part of this project providing the volunteers and lunch on the day. There were also volunteers from Meri Freedom and Queensland Police Service and the broader Ipswich community.
Meri Freedom is a project supported by Rotary Club of Ipswich and has we have received District grants for this project. Meri Freedom was founded and is lead by Rotarian Gay Muller. This project also supports women in PNG, providing personal hygiene products to allow young women to return to education and normal household duties.
On the day the group packed 600 kits for the Birthing Kit Foundation Australia. These kits help women have a safer birth and help prevent infection in mothers and babies by supply Clean Birth Kits to pregnant women living in rural communities and low-resource settings around the world. Kits are given to mothers through community outreach programs, supplied to health facilities for use by doctors, midwives and nurses or distributed to traditional birthing attendants. They are designed to support hygienic practices and environments during childbirth in under-resourced settings.
Zonta Ipswich stated that the packing was completed in record time and they could not have done it without the support and volunteers from the Rotary Club of Ipswich, Meri Freedom, Queensland Police Service, Hon Charis Mullen MP, Mayor Teresa Harding and Councillor Marnie Doyle.
This event was made possible by generous donations from June Frank from Walkers Real Estate, Jennifer Howard MP Member for Ipswich and members of Zonta Ipswich.
It was the first of the community kit assembly days but it won't be the last. Next year's target 1,000.
President Adam Whitbread and Rtn Gay Muller