Aminata Maternal Foundation’s Bluff & Swagger Fashion Lunch was a celebration to remember. Our Cheer Squad, the team of volunteers, models, African drummers and supporters filled the room with the contagious and joyful spirit of Shout ‘Gladi Gladi’, in celebration of women overcoming adversity and celebrating their strength and resilience.
Our drummers set the rhythm for the day letting all those hear that AMF was there to celebrate all things Sierra Leone, and to raise funds for our Training and Accommodation Hostel. This project beginning in 2017, supports pregnant teenagers by providing free accommodation and vocational training to vulnerable young mothers, who would otherwise be homeless.
With your support, this event was able to raise nearly $28,000. What a phenomenal result! Our team is brimming with joy.
Key outcomes for the girls are:
- Baby and childcare education, ensuring these young women are able to look after their own children and to care competently for other children
- Competent in housekeeping activities, especially important because many of these young women have never lived in a house before.
- Competent in catering with a focus on cooking methods, food hygiene and food presentation.
- Skilled in how to plan and organise tasks and activities.
- Conflict management.
- Given financial and commercial understanding in small business and trading.
- Taught much valued local handicrafts such as beaded shoes, armlets, bags and waist-beads and door/floor mats as a source of goods to trade.
The funds raised from this event will continue to provide facilities and develop our training programs and opportunities for these young mothers. This programme has been a vital part of supporting and empowering adolescent first-time mothers, helping to pull them out of poverty through vocational training and job placements.
We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors who helped make 2019 Bluff & Swagger Lunch the colourful and meaningful celebration that it was. Thank you to African Family Safaris, Africanologie, 2SydneyStylists, Ole Lyngaard Copenhagen, Eden Road Wines, Bianca Spender, byfreer, Carla Zampatti, Moët and Chandon, and PWC.
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Read More![Let us virtually travel to Aberdeen Women's Centre during our 2019 visit - our CEO @aminata_conteh_biger with the Dream Team as pictured above
Here in Sydney as we find ourselves in an extended lockdown due to COVID-19, we can appreciate the access that Australians have to quality healthcare, warmth and shelter provided in our humble abodes (and the ability to stay connected via Zoom calls during periods of reduced face-to-face contact!).
In celebrating the 2021 United Nations World Population Day today, at the Aminata Maternal Foundation we are reflecting on how the rest of the world is managing with compromised health care systems. The area of sexual and reproductive health in particular is impacted as many countries are experiencing concern over changing fertility rates. United Nations Population Fund (formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities [UNFPA]), emphasises that educational, economic and political empowerment of women enables autonomy and control over choices regarding their body.
Did you know, only 55% of women have the power to make their own decisions about their bodies? The current pandemic has exacerbated gender-based inequities, notably in Sierra Leone as the teenage pregnancy rate continues to rise. During the Ebola crisis, teenage pregnancies in Sierra Leone saw a 66% increase and it is anticipated that another surge will result from the COVID-19 crisis. To combat this our Dream Team project collaborates with the Aberdeen Women's Centre located in Freetown, Sierra Leone to provide support to re-integrate teenage mothers into their communities post-birth.
References for further reading🌏:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-population-day
https://aminatamaternalfoundation.org/mission/our-projects/the-dream-team/](https://aminatamaternalfoundation.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
