Mama Tendo equips parents with skills to balance family, work

Aug 29, 2007

MAMA Tendo’s Foundation, which started as a mere column in The New Vision last year, has transformed many lives.

By Juliet Waiswa and Halima Shaban

MAMA Tendo’s Foundation, which started as a mere column in The New Vision last year, has transformed many lives.

During the second parenting seminar recently, the Master of Ceremonies, Grace Makoko Tibihikira, said: “As a result of the column in The New Vision, we started the seminars to help working parents nurture and raise their children.

The Mama Tendo Foundation holds seminars for nannies as well. Fifty of them have been trained in nutrition, personal hygiene and looking after babies.

“We shall hold another seminar for nannies in September at the Young Men Christian Association offices in Wandegeya. We have held Seminars for mothers in Katanga, Kifumibira, Entebbe and Kitoro slums. We intend to move to different areas,” Tibihikira said. The foundation does not only stop at creating awareness among parents, but has raised funds for the neurology unit at Mulago Hospital.

The foundation raised sh4m for Arua Hospital and sh1.2m for the incubator unit at Mulago Hospital.
The coordinator of Mama Tendo Foundation, Catherine Ruhweza, says the foundation plans to carry out at least three seminars every year.

It will also have a retreat for mothers and their babies as well as an interactive website for women.

A team of professional midwives from Uganda Women Health Initiatives screened mothers who attended the seminar for cervical and breast cancer, some of the most common killer, yet curable diseases. The sponsors gave expectant mothers gift hampers. Sponsors were Johnson and Johnson, The New Vision, Jomayi property consultants, Simba telecom, Dembe fm and Women Initiative Health.

Ruhweza said since the foundation started, 800 parents had attended the seminar and over 40 had been screened for breast and cervical cancer.

Presenters included The New Vision’s chief executive officer, Robert Kabushenga. He talked about managing a family and the challenges at the work place.

Kabushenga told the participants to be there for their children if they wanted to be morally upright. He advised parents to mentor their children. “I wouldn’t like my son to be like a houseboy. Are those the aspirations you have for them? Don’t let anybody be the role model for your child; you should be,” he added.

During his presentation on managing children in the global village, Fagil Mandy, the former education commissioner, said today’s parents are too busy to model their children. He encouraged single mothers to make time for their children, pick out the positive aspects of their husbands and dwell on them to make the children like their fathers.

“Children need to be taught what they want to be and they should be left to practise their talents.

What is it that you want your child to be? Give them the exposure,” Mandy advised. The executive director of Enterprise Uganda, Charles Ocici, said women need to be empowered in order to look after their families.

Betty Masaba a mid-wife and nutritionist at Mulago Hospital, Dr. Sabrina Kawaka a Mulago Hospital paediatrician and Pastor Martin Ssempa of Life Ministries also presented.

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