These are statements we hear from moms in our Child Survival Program:

“I didn’t know the importance of cleaning with soap.”

“I didn’t know that I was not feeding my child correctly.”

“I didn’t know that it was important to play with my child.”

Mothers in our Child Survival Program range in age from the young teens to the early 40s. Knowledge that we consider common sense is not always common for them. These moms typically lack the opportunity to learn basic home economics skills. And sometimes, the lack of one of these basic skills means life or death for an infant.

So what do we do?

Our Child Survival Program builds trust between a mother and a church staff member who visits on a regular basis. These visits provide opportunities to teach home economics skills in a safe and trusting environment.

We provide church partners with a list of necessary home economics skills; the staff then adapt the list so that the skills fit the context of their communities.

Our resource curriculum provides “mini lesson plans” enabling Survival Specialists to teach these skills to mothers in the program.

Samples of these skills include:

• Ensuring a source of fuel for cooking, like firewood or gas, and safely handling the fuel source.
• Understanding a balanced diet and providing it to the infant. This helps the mother avoid giving her child “empty calories” such as those found in tea or colas or carbohydrate-rich diets that lack essential protein, vitamins and minerals.
• Purifying water to make it safe for drinking.
• Identifying the early symptoms of illness so mothers can seek medical assistance for her children as quickly as possible.
• Using soap and water to wash hands before handling food and after using the toilet or latrine. And, teaching the same to their children.
• Understanding a baby’s temperament so that mothers can better and more quickly address the baby’s needs.
• Making and using laundry detergent to clean the family’s clothing.
• Making safe and fun toys for the children from recyclable materials.
• Removing or being vigilant about hazards that can harm children in the home.

Because many moms in the Child Survival Program are also illiterate, our resource curriculum also contains mini lesson plans to teach them functional literacy and basic math skills. Basic skills mothers should have in order to properly care for their children, especially in emergencies, include:

• Reading a medicine label and instructions so medicine can be properly administered when necessary.
• Reading a map or a bus route to go to the hospital when necessary.
• Understanding a bill.
• Managing a simple budget.
• Understanding a proper business transaction (such as giving cash and counting change).
• Understanding simple arithmetic such as addition and subtraction and some multiplication and division.

Moms in our Child Survival Program also have opportunities to learn income-generating skills so they may eventually help provide for their families financially.

Examples of these income-generating skills include:

• Sewing and tailoring.
• Baking and cooking.
• Confectionery, such as making chocolates and candies.
• Beauty services, such as manicures and pedicures.
• Simple agriculture and animal-husbandry skills, such as growing their own vegetables and raising their own chickens and goats.
• Cleaning services.

So, next time you slip on your dishwashing gloves, or pick up a bar of soap to wash your hands, or take out food to prepare a meal, remember how valuable your knowledge of home economics is. It helps keep you healthy.

Similarly, next time you read a medicine label, get directions from a Global Positioning System, or receive change from a vendor, thank God that you are not dependent on other people to explain these things to you. You are less likely to be taken advantage of.

And next time you set about to do your work, even if it is drudgery, thank God that you have an income. Many people don’t even have the skills or opportunity to work. Thank God that He gives us common-sense knowledge to share with others!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

I started sponsoring children when I was 14. Now close to 50, that’s a lot of years of making a difference in kids’ lives with relatively little effort, thanks to Compassion and a few other well-run organizations.

Why aren’t all people of adequate means sponsoring children?

Fear of the unknown? Fear of commitment? Ignorance of the fact that they can, in fact, spare the change?

Maybe it’s simply that they still haven’t heard of it yet.

My main career is graphic design, but I’ve also become a bit of a writer. My faith has largely been developed through the simple pleasure of curling up with a good book — thank you C.S. Lewis, Paul Little, Jim Burns — and I would like to give back in the way that I have been impacted, or at least try.

With the subject matters I tackle, I hope to ignite interest in the most important things in life (which are not “things” at all, of course).

Two years ago, I compiled a collection of stories about service. It’s called The Social Cause Diet: Find A Service That Feeds The Soul.

Three of the 45 stories are from avid Compassion fans and spokespeople:

• Shaun Groves
• Justin McRoberts
• Shannon Lowe

I am so grateful for their contributions (and their awesomeness), and anticipate increased awareness of child sponsorship through them.

Presently, I’m working on Volume Two of The Social Cause Diet. If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you have a story to share! Please consider writing it down and submitting it through www.socialcausediet.com.

As with the first volume, my goal is to communicate that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” while showcasing a wide variety of services. The more stories, the better, and the greater chance readers will find ways in which they would like to serve.

I should mention why the word “diet” is in the title of my book. (Let’s pretend I wasn’t influenced by the fact that diet books tend to sell very well.)

First of all, when we help others, we nourish our souls, so this book suggests a diet for the soul.

I consider the soul to be our real self; the part that can get better and better (with proper feeding), even as its housing wears thin.

Secondly, there is a significant amount of evidence that indicates that people who volunteer regularly tend to be healthier than those who do not volunteer. The studies are amazing.

A steady diet of helping others seems to be as important to our physical well-being as proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Lastly, my personal testimony includes an ugly history of dieting in the usual way — or maybe I should say, dysfunctional way.

I was a compulsive dieter who eventually became bulimic without even knowing the term.

The turning point in my life came when my college roommate got in my face and said, “Gail, the world is bigger than your pack of crackers.”

It was at that moment that I realized how self-absorbed I had become with my dieting, and I didn’t want to stay that way.

While I was not immediately cured of my disorder, the all-important will to get better was there, and my journey to health began.

What I really believe is that our country’s fascination with dieting is all wrong. The more we diet, the more problems we seem to have with obesity and eating disorders.

Maybe it’s because the typical diet makes the dieter the focal point, endorsing the ideology that “it’s all about me.” But true well-being — philosophers, theologians, sociologists, and even politicians all agree — is achieved when we feel connected to something beyond ourselves.

So that’s why I propose going on the Social Cause Diet; that is, developing a lifestyle that incorporates serving others in some way. It may not be easy, but the benefits are well worth it.

And unlike the usual diet that leaves you hungry, this one will fill you up.

Submit your story at www.socialcausediet.com.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates