This year, CBWOQ awarded a New Initiative Grant to Moms of Hope, a growing support network for mothers in Liberia raising babies with hydrocephalus. The program has come out of the ongoing work of one of our Baptist churches who partnered with International Christian Medical Fellowship to provide life-saving surgeries for 20 babies. Dr. Ballah, a neurosurgeon as well as one of the church’s Liberian members and founder of ICMF, performed the surgeries starting in 2024.
This year however, as mothers returned for follow-up care, a heartbreaking reality emerged. Many of the babies were severely malnourished and most of their mothers had been abandoned to raise them alone, due to the stigma of their child having a disability. In their communities, these children are often labeled as cursed and as a result, mothers are pressured to abandon or even kill their babies to “break the curse.” Poverty and hunger only deepen the crisis. Several of the babies became too weak to endure necessary follow-up surgeries, and sadly three little ones passed away.
In response, Moms of Hope is creating a lifeline.
This program is offering hope and support for mothers through regular community gatherings, supplemental food and hygiene packs, and ongoing medical follow-up through a Christian nurse. In providing home visits, pastoral care, and essential nutritional supplements for malnourished babies, the hope is to preserve the surgeries already performed, prevent future complications, and give these families hope and a future. In addition, with occasional in-person training and a bi-weekly online support group, the program is aiming to keep mothers connected, encouraged, and equipped throughout the year.
Each part of this initiative works to break cycles of malnutrition, isolation, and stigma, ensuring that both these mothers and their children can not only survive—but truly thrive.
We thank God for the courage and resilience of the moms and babies who endured much and for ministries like Moms of Hope that stand beside them. These women have decided to trust and hope for a better life for their little ones. CBWOQ is deeply honoured to help Moms of Hope meet their needs.
By giving toward CBWOQ’s New Initiative Grants, you help make programs like this possible. And we want to keep growing this kind of impact.
Would you consider giving toward our New Initiative Grants so we can support more programs like Moms of Hope?
Your generosity helps create more spaces where women are supported, strengthened, and reminded of God’s deep love for them, helping the ‘least of these’ to thrive.
You can give at: cbwoq.ca/give
Thank you for helping us live out our vision:
Empowered women, transforming the world as God’s Beloved.
Thank you for growing with us—in courage, in compassion, and in hope.