What is UbuMama?
...a Zulu word for motherhood, and an arts-based project dedicated to bringing mothers' stories of giving birth in the developing world into public view, to honor the lives of mothers and to increase the commitment to saving the lives of women dying in childbirth.
Working together with poor women in countries, the UbuMama project seeks to make it possible for women from vulnerable communities to tell their own stories of giving birth and symbolically depict their stories through their art so that their voices and experiences can be heard worldwide by leaders and public audiences.
This project was established in 2005 by Imagine Chicago, Create Africa South and the White Ribbon Alliance. To date the project has been implemented in 7 communities, including two communities supported by Teaming Up. This year, Teaming Up hopes to expand the support for UbuMama by reaching out to additional collegiate athletic teams and inviting teams to sponsor the participation of an additional community.
The Process
Building A Partnership:
Teaming Up and the White Ribbon Alliance are working together to build alliances between participating teams and priority countries. Priority countries have been identified as the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates (click here to see a list of priority countries and maternal mortality rates). Each team is partnered with a priority country that is willing and capable of organizing and participating in the UbuMama project. A local coordinator is identified and that coordinator selects a group of mothers from the community that represents a geographic, social or political framework at higher risk of maternal death.
(Durban, South Africa)
To participate in the UbuMama project, the identified group of mothers will meet each day for approximately two weeks. The project is led by a local project coordinator from the community and all of the women are compensated for their time. Compensation is extremely important as it assures that the women will not be prevented from participating due to economic restrictions or disapproval from their husbands. In many communities, maternal and reproductive health is a taboo issue and many men would not allow their wives to participate in a project about safe motherhood for that purpose alone. Addressing gender inequality and power roles are essential to achieving long term maternal health goals and should not be ignored, however, compensation provides a mechanism by which to empower women and make the initial strides towards achieving safe motherhood.
Sharing stories:
The UbuMama project begins with a discussion about the realities of motherhood in their community. Women are encouraged to share their personal stories and for many of the women, this will be the first time they have talked about their own experiences.
Each woman writes her personal story of motherhood and draws a picture that illustrates her experience. After completing their personal stories, the women are re-united to discuss what should be done in their community to ensure that every woman has a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. Local, trained midwifes join the UbuMama women to help identify the obstacles to safe motherhood in their community and to educate the women about the importance of nutrition and the availability of health resources. With education and access to care most of the pregnancy-related fatalities and complications are preventable and treatable; improving maternal health requires that these resources are available, accessible and utilized.
The UbuMama project is designed to help local women realize that motherhood should not pose such an enormous threat to their health and their lives and that in working together they are capable of creating solutions that make motherhood safer in their community.
Creating a Voice:
The UbuMama project is dedicated to addressing the challenges of maternal health at both a local and global level. While local community based action is essential to understanding challenges and creating solutions, the obstacles to ensuring that every woman has access to a safe pregnancy extend beyond the boundaries of individual communities. Making motherhood safer and addressing reproductive health on a long term basis requires a global commitment and sustainable partnerships between rich and poor countries. Making motherhood safer is not exclusively a health concern in the 21st century; it is a moral, social and political objective.
The United Nations agreed to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by the year 2015, yet this issue has received minimal attention as over half a million women continue to die each year. With 99% of maternal deaths occurring in the developing world, the women that face the greatest risks in pregnancy do not have the political power to hold world leaders accountable to keeping their promises and meeting all of the Millennium Development Goals.
The UbuMama project captures the authentic voice of women in the developing world and then utilizes partnerships with developed nations to broadcast this voice to the world, transforming the message into a form of political power.
The voice and message of each community is presented through their production of an UbuMama garment. The women from each community work together to design and produce a traditional maternity garment that tells the story of birthing in their community. The garment includes their personal stories and illustrations as well as words, messages and images related to their community and the hope for safer motherhood. Their hope for a safer motherhood is also expressed in a written message to the world.
(Images from Hamburg, South Africa)
A day by day description of the production process is available here at the Create Africa South UbuMama website.
To date seven communities have participated in the UbuMama project, two of which were supported by Teaming Up. The following descriptions are summaries and excerpts from the projects completed before the establishment of Teaming Up. For complete documentation of the two projects supported by Teaming Up, please follow the links below.
Throughout the 2006-2007 academic year, Yale Women's Ice Hockey raised funding to support the UbuMama project in Hamburg, South Africa.
In October, 2007, Meg Gill (Yale '07) made her debut marathon performance, running the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in honor and support of homeless young women in Accra, Ghana.
SOUTH AFRICA...
Richmond Farm: The first pilot project of UbuMama was launched in South Africa. A group of women from Richmond Farm, an area in the KwaMashu township of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, participated in the UbuMama Project by creating birthing cloths (see images left) depicting their personal birthing stories in embroidery.
A Birthing Story: "When I gave birth to all my children everything went well but what was sad was that my sister, Elsie, when she gave birth, had difficulties. She was in pain for three days and her body was swollen. Doctors tried everything to help her but after four days they had to operate to take the baby out. The baby died. She was in the hospital and could not move or walk. She was paralysed and still cannot walk. I hate King Edward Hospital because of their carelessness. Now I am the mother of her three children. They are all young. The firstborn is 10 years old, the second child is 8 years old and her last born is now 4 years old. I take care of my sister. Bathe and feed her. It is difficult to be a mother."
Umlazi Group: A group of women from Umlazi, K section, a township near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa also participated. These women were part of the Zamukuziphilisa Projec: a local craft manufacturing community project. These women designed and produced the white garment displayed in the photo.
Their Message: "Teenage pregnancy could be the cause of the high rate of deaths of mothers and babies during labour or pregnancy. Teenagers usually hide their pregnancy from their mothers hence they don't visit the clinic as early as they should. Hence the pregnancy complications cannot be noticed as early as tehy develop and bring death. Sometimes the nurses and doctors are so negligent at the clinics. They don't work hand in hand with the pregnant mother. This may cause the mother and her baby to die. When you tell them that you think your baby is coming and you want to push it out, they tell you that the baby is due in the next few hours. When the baby comes as you told them, the baby is unprepared for and the mother is probably alone in the ward.
Making early preparations could save the mother's life and that of her baby. In the black townships there is no transport at night. So, the mother may not get to the clinic in good time. The ambulance may not go into the township especially at night for various reasons. It may not go into rural areas not to mention the informal settlements. So, the mother must try and hire a car that will take her to the clinic or hospital should the time for labour come.
The mothers and would-be mothers should learn that they need to visit the clinic as early as they notice that they are pregnant. The pregnant woman should be friends with the clinic. At the clinic they will teach pregnant women some tips to stay safe and clean and healthy during pregnancy and after giving birth."
ETHIOPIA...
The women who participated are from Desta Mender (Joy Village), a community established by the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital composed of women requiring continued medical care for incurable, pregnancy-related conditions. Desta Mender is composed of 60 acres of rural land outside of Addis Ababa donated by the Ethiopian government to the Fistula Hospital. The women are trained in craft work, including sewing, basket making, embroidery and agriculture in order to support themselves.
A Birthing Story from Meselech Mina:
"My name is Meselesh Mina, coming from Basketo, Gamogofa, Ethiopia. It is over 500 kilometers South from the capital city, Addis Ababa. When I was 13 years old I got married to a man I didn't know was much older then me. After a couple of months I became pregnant and gave birth when I was 14. The pregnancy was uneventful until I was almost to term and one evening I started to have labour pains. I thought it wouldn't take long as was the case with many of my friends who gave birth. But mine was not the same. My family brought me to the nearby hospital, which took us five days on foot. Finally I gave birth in the hospital to a dead baby after being in labor for seven days. I was very sick, too sick even to grieve about my baby.
After almost a week I noticed the worst event was upon me. I was not able to control my urine as well as my bowels. I was very sad and depressed. I didn't go back to my husband and stayed with my family. Almost after a year, my father, who was taking care of me, died.
At that particular time the missionaries working in our area told me about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and brought me here. I had multiple operations and now am living in Desta Mender (Joy Village) together with my friends who have similiar problems. Thanks to God, now I am very happy. I am mostly healed. I am going to school."
INDIA...
This group is comprised of women from six peri-urban villages situated on the Delhi-Haryana border and work with Prerana, a local Indian NGO. The women in these villages are primarily housewives and some work as maids, small vendors or in export factories and sew clothes to earn a livelihood.
A Message from India:
"In our country maternal and child deaths are common. Here, where we live in a peri-urban villages, on the outskirts of Delhi, the capital of India, in extended families, all major decisions regarding ourselves and other family members are taken by the elders of the family. The women folk here do a lot of hard work which consists of cooking, cleaning of house and utensils, washing of clothes, dropping and picking up children from school, taking care of teh elders of the family along with doing stitching or doing some piece work to earn money and supplement the family income.
You will be surprised to know that even during pregnancy our daily work schedule continues and though the family is happy to see us pregnant in the hope of the birth of a male baby, nobody is bothered about our special needs during this period. Our mothers-in-law too have been through the same experience and have had all their delieveries at home with the help of a Dai (untrained midwife). It is a different matter that they don't remember the number of children they have lost and teh complications that arise when these unsafe deliveries are conducted at home.
After giving birth to the child, if it is a boy, celebrations are held but the birth of a girl is taken as a burden and we, the womenfold, are held responsible for giving birth to her. But, we hope and pray that our daughters do not go through the same ordeal as us."
MALAWI...
The Malawian women’s group is from the Ekwendeni Mission Hospital in the town of Mzuzu, northern Malawi. These women are part of a support group called Umoza (Togetherness) and consists of women from several other women’s groups at Ekwendeni Hospital. Umoza is a support group which promotes safe motherhood practices, and includes women of all ages ranging from young mothers to grandmothers.
A Message to the World:
"Childbirth has become a risky thing to go into for most of the women especially here in Malawi. This year's (2005) World Health Day has come up with a very appropriate theme and we hope the world will have an opportunity to hear our stories. Of women silently dying in childbirth. Of women having permanent injuries just for the sake of bringing to life the next generation. It's now time for our governments and everybody else to come to our rescue to make sure that no woman dies from childbirth. You need to put into practice your actions that will indeed show that we women and our children really count."
TANZANIA...
The Tanzanian women are from Mbezi Beach on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. The women, who are of a wide range of age, run a small shop called Unique Handcraft and Boutique where they sell their batiks.
A Message to the World:
"Pregnant women should regularly attend ante-natal clinic and finally plan to deliver in the hospital under the close care of qualified medical staff. Also, the government of Tanzania should make sure that health services are closer to the villagers, with proper trained staff. The international community on its part ought to cooperate and support all efforts geared toward safe motherhood. Such cooperation will build healthy families and strong nations."
The UbuMama Team
The UbuMama project was created in 2005 through the collaboration of:
Create Africa South (CAS), an NGO established in 2000, commits itself to exploring and expressing the relationship between society and creativity, dedicated to preserving and developing creativity in South Africa. In its endeavours to originate, consult with and assist cultural discussions within Africa, it has been founded in the spirit of "Ubuntu"(human-heartedness, generosity, compassion, esp. in African value-systems), addressing the holistic creative interface of people with society.
Imagine Chicago is an NGO that builds hope and civic engagement
through partnership projects that harness imagination for public good and
foster uncommon connections that expand what is possible. Based in the
USA, Imagine Chicago has inspired a self-organizing „Imagine” movement on six continents since 1992.
White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA) is an international coalition of diverse organizations and individuals who have come together to promote increased public awareness and to develop and implement plans of action to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all women and newborns in developing and developed countries.
For more information please visit http://ubumama.org/