Fellowship Hall

Made in Canada - Handle with Hope

Providing for practical needs, from newborns to students and AIDS patients 

The young widow’s face had, like the land of Guatemala around her, been ravaged by years of conflict and hardship. She had lost her husband in the war, leaving her to bring up her children on her own. Every day was a struggle.

Then one day workers at her local church gave out gifts to people in need in the congregation. The widow was offered a drawstring bag filled with toiletries and hygiene products. She reached in and carefully chose a toothbrush.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she was told the entire two-pound bag was hers. She began to cry.
“People’s faces light up when they get a gift,” says Wendy Hagar, founder of Sew on Fire Ministries in Burlington which sends the hand-sewn bags to places in need around the world. “They see a blanket which took hours to make, and they know someone cares.”

Every year, numerous area ministries send a steady stream of material supplies to all corners of the globe. These supplies often take the form of ‘kits’ – packages designed to meet a specific need, like AIDS care kits or birthing kits.

yeA mother in Mexico with her 'Baby Latte' from Sew on Fire

Hundreds of volunteers donate time and money to buy or make the items, assemble the kits and ship them or take them to a distribution point. Packages (like the Guatemalan widow’s bag) are often heavy, and weeks could pass before the assembled kits reach their destination.  Which begs the question: why not send money instead?

First of all, cash isn’t much good when supplies are non-existent or out of reach. The infrastructure in poorer countries is often underdeveloped or badly damaged, especially after natural disasters like the December 2004 tsunami. Lea Jefferson, Birthing Kit Coordinator with Hamilton-based charity The Joy and Hope of Haiti, says the country has very little transportation and good quality materials are hard to obtain.

Hamilton's Lea Jefferson, Birthing Kit Coordinator with The Joy and Hope of Haiti, presents kits to expectant Haitian mothers.

“They don’t have access to any of the supplies,” she said, referring to the razor blades, rubber gloves and gauze that form part of the kit that is designed to reduce the risk of infection at birth. “What they can get is flimsy and very expensive. We can put a kit together for 25 cents.”

Since the project began in 2003, Joy and Hope has sent 100,000 birthing kits to Haiti, the country with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world where one in 17 women die of childbirth-related infections. The simple kit, no bigger than a medium-sized envelope, has prevented thousands of deaths from tetanus.

This is just one example of the difference kits can make. But hand-made packages also give something else – hope. The AIDS care kits distributed by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) send a powerful message of love and encouragement.

“Whenever I open AIDS care kits, I think about the people who packed them, sitting there and hoping the kits would bring assistance to people they don’t even know,” said Dr. Edith Namulema, AIDS coordinator at Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. “This touches me deeply.”

Local churches partner regularly with the MCC to send AIDS care kits overseas. One home church, part of Oakville-based The Meeting House, has raised thousands of dollars and sent out 88 kits in the past two months.

“When somebody packs a kit by hand, the recipient can see that some care and attention has gone into it,” said Trevor Adams, Material Resources Coordinator with wife Jan at MCC Ontario in Kitchener. “It’s the practical aspect as well as a form of encouragement.”

The MCC distributes a variety of kits which are easy to assemble and a tangible way of helping others when the need can seem overwhelming. Steven Schumm is pastor at the Hamilton Mennonite Church which recently sent relief kits to Iraq.

“Putting the relief kits together is a great way to keep people connected and keep interest and passion alive,” he said. “Without a way to plug in, the problems in the world go off our radar.”

Assembling and sending a kit brings as much benefit to the giver as it does to the recipient. Writing a cheque is easier, but the problem can disappear from our minds as quickly as the envelope disappears into the mailbox. Sending supplies makes the issue real.

The Ten Thousand Villages store in Oakville collects materials for MCC school kits every August. As they take their kids shopping, many parents use the opportunity to talk about less privileged schoolchildren around the world.

“It gives a real personal touch and a valuable lesson for the kids,” said Ingrid Heinrichs-Pauls, Public Relations and Education Officer for the Ontario stores. “Cash donations don’t mean much to them, but their parents take them to get supplies and they love picking out the pink sparkly pencil cases and Superman pens.”

Working for a common cause also brings churches and communities closer together. Sew on Fire has sparked the imagination of several major businesses in the Hamilton area, including Babies ‘R’ Us and Roots. They regularly donate skids of cloth or items for baby layettes, cramming Hagar’s rented warehouse (she is urgently looking for new warehouse space).

“Kids, seniors, youth groups, church groups, they all come in and help sew and fill the bags,” said Hagar, whose ministry has sent out 106,000 kits since it began in 2000. “They work over 700 volunteer hours a month, and their lives have been changed. Some of them have lost husbands or jobs, and doing good for others has really helped them.”

With all this in mind, it’s hard to imagine how sending kits could be a bad thing. But material aid in the form of indiscriminate handouts can undermine local cultures and economies and create dependence on richer nations. Christians who come with gifts could give the impression that following Jesus brings prosperity. Examples from the past are, unfortunately, plentiful - from the ‘rice Christians’ in Southeast Asia who converted on the promise of food to the Polynesian ‘cargo cults’ that deified Westerners who brought supplies.

Which is why local organizations handle their kits with care. “The MCC has a long history of sustainable development in countries throughout the world,” said Nina Cavey, elder at The Meeting House. “We know AIDS kits are requested by the people who receive them, and they’re meeting an actual need.”  

Students in Uganda celebrate the arrival of their School Kits, provided by the Mennonite Central Committee.

Sew on Fire partners with mission teams working through local churches to make sure the kits are distributed by community workers according to need. And the birthing kits sent by the Joy and Hope of Haiti were recommended by Haitian medical clinics and designed by the World Health Organization.

Joy and Hope still partners with three clinics in Haiti. Trained birthing assistants at two of these clinics use the birthing kits to help expectant mothers in remote places. The third, northern Haiti’s Bethesda Medical Centre, gives a kit to every pregnant visitor. The subsequent dramatic drop in tetanus infections shows what can be done when western supplies are paired with local know-how.

“I doubt we will ever know exactly how many lives have been saved but I am sure it would be safe to say thousands,” said Dr Gavin McClintock at the Bethesda Medical Centre. “It is amazing how something so simple and cheap can save so many lives and have such a big impact.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)

AIDS Care Kits contain:    
1 bar bath soap
1 bath towel and 1 washcloth
2 flat bed sheets and 2 pillowcases
2 yards fabric
1 pair rubber gloves
1 container petroleum jelly
1 container medicated body powder
$100 cheque to train and provide for volunteers and purchase medicines and Bibles for people with HIV/AIDS
The MCC collects and distributes a variety of other kits, including school kits, relief kits, health kits, newborn kits, and sewing kits, as well as soap, towels, comforters/blankets and fabric.
For more information, visit www.mcc.org/kits or contact MCC Ontario by phone 519-745-8458 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Joy and Hope of Haiti

Birthing Kits contain:
1 clean razor blade
2 pieces of string and 2 gauze pads
Paper birthing mat and Disposable gloves
Belly band and Safety pin
Joy and Hope sends a variety of other kits and shipments, including clothing, medical supplies, sewing supplies and educational supplies.
For more information, visit www.joyandhopeofhaiti.ca or contact Joy and Hope by phone 905-522-5494 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sew on Fire

Baby layettes contain:    
Newborn-sized clothes
A blanket and a rattle
Cloth diapers and pins
Personal care items for baby and mother
Other kits sent by Sew on Fire are customized for schoolchildren, single moms, senior women, men, teachers and medical workers.For more information, visit www.sewonfire.com or contact Wendy Hagar by phone 905-333-5722 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it