Working with African communities

Mama and Nunu and Healthy African Women

Mama and Nunu Resources

In 2000, a pregnancy care manual, Mama and Nunu (Mother and Baby), was developed for health service providers to assist them in providing culturally sensitive pregnancy care and health information to their African clients.

In the six years since Mama and Nunu was published there have been a number of demographic changes that have taken place. These include refugee intake from Sudan, Liberia and Burundi, a significant number of girls from the original target group reaching puberty and requests for information about family planning. In the light of these changes, there is a need to review the original Mama and Nunu and develop a second edition of the pregnancy care manual that incorporates information about women from these African countries, young African women and their specific needs around sexual and reproductive health, and information about contraception.

Following the publication of Mama and Nunu, WHW ran Girlzone, a recreational program for young African women aged 12-16. Girlzone provided a safe environment and space for young women to express their feelings of what it’s like to grow up in Australia between two cultures. We are keen to incorporate the experiences and difficulties facing young women in the second edition of Mama and Nunu. WHW staff also conducted focus groups with 11 Sudanese, 14 Liberian, 14 Burundi, 27 Somali as well as 8 young women from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan in June 2007. It was imperative that we integrate feedback from service providers who have made use of the manual. We therefore consulted with service providers via a written questionnaire and received a good response.

WHW expects to publish the second edition of the manual by early 2008.

Find out how to order Mama and Nunu.

The Family and Reproductive Rights Education Program (FARREP)

Women's Health West works with African women, primarily from from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Middle East through the Family and Reproductive Rights Education Program, or FARREP.

FARREP builds stronger community links and supports for women and girls, empowering them to improve their own wellbeing by giving them appropriate health information. Through FARREP, we advocate for women with health and other services, and improve services through professional development in Sunshine Hospital and across the region.

FIND OUT MORE below or contact FARREP staff on 9689 9588 or via email.

Key issues for Horn of African women

African women's health day

Some key issues for women and girls in these communities:

Geographic isolation, inadequate transport and lack of family and social support networks.
Social isolation, racism, and a community climate of fear of difference and anti-Muslim sentiment.
High unemployment, poverty and lack of affordable, adequate housing.
Lack of culturally-appropriate, accessible health care and other services, and a poor understanding in the broader community of specific health needs.
Language barriers, including a lack of translated information and inadequate services for emerging language groups such as Dinka.
Lack of awareness of rights in a range of areas, such as family violence.

Sunshine Hospital

Supporting birthing women at Sunshine Hospital

We support expectant mothers receiving services at Sunshine Hospital, talking with them about their concerns, and conveying these to medical and allied staff. We give staff advice on cultural attitudes to issues like showering, diet, pain relief and the presence of partners, visitors and male health workers. We provide formal training to staff on how to work with African women in labour and post-partum, including women who have been circumcised. Three years later, Hospital staff are increasingly referring clients to our service, and are more aware of cultural issues.

On Arrival health education

The 200 plus new refugees living people in the Maribyrnong On-Arrival transitional flats come from countries including Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Albania and Iraq. We began working with this group in 2002 with a walking group activity – time out for women stressed by the pressures of being newly-arrived and caring for their families. It then developed into a weekly meeting, with requests for speakers on topics such as parenting, child nutrition, family violence, housing and immunisation. Participants became better informed and linked with services, and enjoyed a relaxed space to build friendships. The flats have since closed, to be replaced by scattered transitional housing. This is likely to increase women's isolation, making it harder for them to access information, services and programs.

Family Harmony Project

Women from the Somali and Eritrean communities can be reluctant to speak openly about family violence. We encouraged participation in this research project – aimed at helping Women's Health West improve our family violence services – by calling it 'Family Harmony'. We conducted interviews and focus groups with community women, ethno-specific and non-African health and community workers. Emerging issues around under-reporting of family violence include: language barriers; attitudes that family violence is a family or community matter; fear of authorities, especially for women on spousal visas; and traumatic experiences involving police or military in their country of origin. The report from this project is now available online.

African Women's Groups

Members of the Dhaganka Somali women's group.

For some years Women’s Health West has run a monthly Somali women's group in Flemington. For almost two years we also ran a weekly mixed African group with Western Region Health Centre.

The groups provide social support and health information on subjects including Pap testing, immunisation, nutrition, parenting and breastfeeding. Guest speakers are brought in on request, including the Equal Opportunity Commission on reporting discrimination, and a self-defence trainer in response to women's experiences of harassment after September 11. The women have broken down their isolation and report much-improved diets, exercise and more regular health checkups.

In 2004 Women's Health West ran a Somali women's group called ‘Dhaganka – keeping our culture’, which involved isolated Somali women in discussions on women’s health, and on how Somali culture is maintained and passed on. The group also took part in an innovative wall hanging project aimed at strengthening Somali culture.