It doesn’t matter what language you speak whether it’s English, Shona or Ndebele or whether you live in the UK or Zimbabwe, being a mother is one of the most responsible jobs in the world. Our love for our children is indescribable. We treasure them without smothering them and help build their confidence by more than just words. They can drive us to distraction, drive us to tears, both of sadness and of pride, but we’d be lost without them; they are our world.
Mother’s Day is a day for people to show their appreciation towards mothers and mother figures like stepmothers, relatives, mothers-in-law, guardians and family friends worldwide. It’s a time to reflect on the importance of mothers in our lives. We celebrate Sunday 6 March whilst Zimbabwe celebrates Sunday 8 May.
Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs as we have to be prepared to put the needs of our children ahead of our own. Our task is to ensure that our children have the skills and forethought to go out into the world, to trust their own judgement and to follow their instincts. To know that when they have that sick feeling in their stomach, their ‘gut’ feel is probably the right one.
A mother’s love is about getting our children to open up and talk about things that have happened; it’s about using open questions to encourage a response, it’s using the ‘tell me’ phrase to open up a dialogue; tell me about your day, tell me one thing that made you laugh today, tell me what made you sad or tell me how your helped someone today.
A mother’s love is about teaching our children right from wrong, ensuring they have the skills to evaluate the thoughts, opinions and values of their peers and the online world. It’s about being consistent and following through on both promises and threats; turning off the Internet at night because our children are gaming into the early hours, confiscating their mobile phone because they’re texting at meal times.
Being a mother means knowing how to weather the storm of parenthood; it’s taking the good with the bad times and remembering that our children will only ever have one mother and that is us. It means never giving up on our children, even if the going gets tough and they don’t want to spend time with us, preferring to stay away from home. All we can do is leave the door of communication open and trust that one day they will come back to us.
It’s about building self-esteem, supporting their dreams and loving them unconditionally. It’s letting them go, letting them fail and teaching them how to learn from the experience. It’s going without so they can have what they deserve.
Our children annoy us, copy us, hug us, love us, motivate us, stress us and teach us during the panacea of life. But remember, these words which sum up motherhood…
- All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother – Abraham Lincoln, US President
- To the world you might just be one person, but to one person you might just be the world
- Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever
- No gift to your mother can ever equal her gift to you – life
- A mother understands what a child does not say
- There is eternal influence and power in motherhood
Make this Mother’s Day different; give your mother the gift of helping a vulnerable child in Zimbabwe by donating via justgiving or text.
- £5 provides sanitary supplies for a woman for a month (text CBFZ05 £5 to 70070)
- £10 sends a child to school for a whole term (text CBFZ10 £10 to 70070)
- £15 provides one child with a new uniform and a term’s school fees
- £30 provides essentials for a new born child
- £50 provides food for a family (mother and two children) for a month
If you’d like to make a difference to children we support, you can;
- Volunteer in the UK and Zimbabwe
- Help with admin, digital marketing and fundraising in our Reading office
- Help teach, construct boreholes, classrooms and toilets in Zimbabwe
- Promote us at your church, club, school and work
- Organise activities and events using our fundraising ideas
- Fundraise for us, donate at JustGiving or text CBFZ10 £10 to 70070
- Ask people who support your fundraising event to sign a Gift Aid form; the government gives 25p extra for every £1 you raise so we get £1.25
- Sponsor a child for £15 a month to give them skills, vision and motivation
- Have fun choosing items to fill a shoebox and the joy of opening one lasts forever
- Purchase from retailers at easyfundraising; we get a percentage of what you spend
- Take advantage of retailer discounts at Savoo and we get a donation from every purchase you make
- Use easysearch to search the Internet, instead of Google, so we benefit
- Promote us by liking and sharing our blogs, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter posts
- We work with Rotary International and our projects are overseen by Rotary Club of Harare
