I should like to take you with me to visit a certain mission in Central Africa, and let you see what is being done to uplift the native women in that section. First, allow me to introduce you to the one in charge, whose face seems to radiate kindness and good will. She will gladly show you her humble little dispensary, where she attends to hundreds of sick people each month, without the aid of a doctor.
This is the time for the monthly gathering of the twenty-five women workers whom she has trained to do welfare work in the various centers around the mission. Some of them are located more than a day's journey away. Whenever she can manage to get away from the dispensary, she goes out and visits these centers, and gives personal supervision to the work. She tells us that the aggregate attendance some months reaches as high as three thousand. She could never do all this work herself, and while it may not always be done just as well as she might do it, still she is doing a wonderful work through these faithful women, and at the same time she is teaching the natives to help their own people.
The women are here at the mission for a two days' "refresher" course, and it is time for the first meeting. As we enter the building in which it is to be held, we see a substantial-looking group of women, dressed in simple uniforms of blue denim, seated in a semicircle on the floor. They are deeply interested in the part they are playing in the great work of helping suffering humanity, and they give rapt attention to the lessons on hygiene, child care, proper feeding, etc. They must listen carefully, for they are going to teach these same lessons to their sisters in the villages when they return, and they will not have a textbook to use.
You may wonder what is the purpose of the empty box which lies in front of each woman. Well, that is her medicine kit. It has been made by cutting a paraffin box in half. A neat cover is fitted over the box, and a padlock is attached. The women bring these boxes each month when they come to the mission. While they are busy with their class-work, these boxes are taken by the native orderly and refilled with a supply of simple medicines, dressings, and supplies, which the women use in treating the babies who come to their clinics. They do not act as "village doctors," to dose out medicine to anyone and everyone who may ask for it ; their work is primarily for the babies up to two years of age, and the mothers of these babies. They hold regular classes each week with the mothers, and teach them the things which they have learned at the mission. If there are any sick babies, and there always are some, they are treated.
A careful record is kept of each child. A simple little card, which bears the child's name, sex, village, date of birth, name of father and mother, etc., is provided for each child, and each week the child's record is marked on this card. A report of each case treated is also entered in the notebook provided, and is submitted monthly to the one who is in charge at the mission.
As we question these women regarding their work and how they find time to do it each week, we are promptly given to understand that this is the Lord's work they are doing, and that they plan their own work so as to have one day free each week for this work. They meet at the church, and have a short service —a song and prayer, and perhaps a Bible study. After the lesson for the day, practical demonstrations are given. Each mother is called in turn to come forward with her child, that he may be examined, weighed, measured, and charted; and if he is sick, he receives treatment. All the difficult cases, however, are referred to the mission. Instead of leaving as soon as her child has been attended to, each woman takes her seat and waits quietly until all are finished, and then they close in an orderly way and are dismissed with prayer.
The woman who is sitting near the end has something to tell us. Oh, yes, she has had two cases of snake bite which she has treated successfully with permanganate solution. We ask her how she treated such cases, and she replies by saying, through the interpreter, "First I scarify the flesh around the wound; then I apply a wet dressing of the solution made by dissolving the permanganate crystals in water." One case was that of a small baby who had been bitten on the abdomen while lying on the ground. The baby was badly swollen when she found it, but after treatment for two or three days, the swelling receded.
Now the boxes are all ready, the questions have been answered, and the lessons are finished, and the women are eager to be off on their homeward journey. They are waiting to say "good-by" and "thank you." As we reflect upon it all, the following text comes to mind : "My strength is made perfect in weakness."
