Training nuns and nurses in Safe Motherhood

 Dedicated  Nuns are carrying out mother & child care in remote parts of the world, where there are no doctors or nurses. An immediate need is to impart medical knowledge and skills to enable them.

Doctors who are part of Every Infant Matters are carrying out training of nuns and nurses who are doing mother and child care to the poorest of the poor living in remote areas, in countries such as India, Italy, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Sudan, South Africa (Johannesburg), Mozambique, Ethiopia, the Hawaiian islands in the US, Germany, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

We partner with the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC) to provide the nuns with the necessary skills and expertise to assist them in serving a large community of the society efficiently and effectively. This is done by the way of training sessions that are held every week where we aim at acquainting them with factual information, hence, dispelling any myths or false data. Some of the sessions we have conducted addressed the general concepts related to pregnancy and the complications involved in the labour process. And with the spread of Coronavirus, we have introduced training sessions solely dedicated to helping the sisters understand the Covid-19 Infection Control policies. A community of doctors and the nurses have also been created via a Whatsapp Group where the nurses can post their queries with regards to certain aspects of a given medical process or emergency and the doctors provide them with the answers in almost no time. Such virtual assistance and networking ensure that the primary objective of EIM, as well as MSMHC is accomplished, i.e. to create a world with better accessibility to medical care and health-care services and facilities.

 About MSMHC: The Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), the first indigenous Congregation of North East India was founded on October 24, 1942, in  Guwahati, Assam, by Venerable Stephen Ferrando, SDB, the then Bishop of Shillong.  The congregation began with 6 young generous girls who committed their lives for the service of the Church and the society. Reading the signs of the time and responding to the need of the hour, Bishop Ferrando founded the Congregation to evangelize and catechize, to heal and educate the far-flung rural population of North East India. He was also overwhelmed by the poverty, illiteracy, and unhygienic living conditions of the people of the region whose misery was worsened by the ravages of World War II. The Congregation has six provinces in India and the provincial headquarters are at Bangalore, Guwahati, Kolkata, Shillong, Tinsukia, and Tezpur. Today, the Congregation has 216 Centres with sisters working in 61 dioceses of India, Italy, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Sudan, South Africa (Johannesburg), Mozambique, Ethiopia, the Hawaiian islands in the US, Germany, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Congregation is blessed with members belonging to 75 ethnic groups from India, Myanmar, Nepal, Hawaii, and Lesotho numbering 1300 members.

(Written by Esha Saini, Manager Communications)