Protecting Newborns and Empowering Women in Malawi
Orant’s baby hats program helps babies and local business women
Every newborn needs a hat
Jo Ann Graham grew up seeing her mother knitting baby hats with a group of other women. They would later donate the hats to babies at different hospitals in the USA.
When Jo Ann first visited Malawi, she thought of a way of supporting new babies in our maternity ward. She remembered her mother’s initiative and thought of sending baby hats to Malawi.
Baby hats are an important part of postpartum care
Seeing a newborn baby without a hat feels unusual and wrong in Malawian culture, and in some rural areas of Malawi, it would be looked at as a taboo. Baby hats are also a requirement for certain maternity wards in Malawi.
For newborns, hats are an important part of keeping warm and safe. They are also colorful and cute! However, mothers often cannot afford to buy hats for their newborns.
Our Healthcare program offers baby hats to new mothers
To lift this burden off of local Malawian women, Jo Ann has been working with different women in the US who knit hats and other well wishers who send hats to babies in Malawi.
Our Healthcare program offers hats to all newborn babies that are born in our labor ward, making sure that no baby is denied a chance to be warm and safe. We maintain a steady inventory of hats for newborn babies.
“We are always grateful for Jo Ann and all the donors’ efforts who make sure that babies are well taken care of. Newborn babies easily lose heat through their head and toes. If they are not well covered, they are more at risk of neonatal death,” says Linda Phiri, Program Manager for Orant’s Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health Services.
Empowering FEM Women with a new trade
Recently, our Healthcare program has been working with our FEM for Women program participants to make baby hats and booties. Our FEM program has skilled participants who use the yarn to knit baby hats and booties, which will later be sold to the Healthcare program. The money then goes to the FEM program groups which will be invested in other group projects.
“This is a very useful initiative as it helps FEM women channel their time into something useful while they are running their day to day businesses,” says Tango Phiri, FEM Program Manager.
Thanks to our donors for keeping babies in Malawi warm and empowering our FEM women. Your donations to our FEM for Women program go directly to support this venture, providing women with a source of income and babies with the clothing they need. Learn more here about donating to Orant.
