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Kum Bah Yah House Manager Earline Hamm, a member of Ebenezer for more than 50 years,
is a retired nurse. |
by Larry Ulrich
March 2006
In 1988 Earline Hamn, a member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, was concerned about news reports regarding the infant mortality rate in Ebenezer’s community, Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. “North Lawndale had the second highest infant mortality rate in the country. It was bordering on infant mortality as high as a third world nation,” Earline told Sparks one recent Saturday morning.
Earline was working that morning at Kum Bah Yah House, a well baby clinic ministry housed in Ebenezer’s former school building. The Ebenezer congregation founded the clinic ministry, which operates the first and third Saturdays of each month except July and August, in response to that news story 18 years ago.
A retired nurse who previously worked at both the University of Illinois Medical Center and Cook County Hospital, Earline now volunteers as manager for this clinic that serves a community where the per capita income is less than 50% of the national average, according to U.S. Census statistics.
During the clinic’s early days, lack of prenatal care, drug and alcohol dependency, and malnutrition were ever present dangers to the economically disadvantaged community. These were “potato chip and Kool Aid” mothers, Earline told Sparks.
The ministry at Ebenezer, and other human care service providers in the North Lawndale community, has helped improve the situation dramatically since 1988, according to Carol Zygowicz, a registered nurse who volunteers at the ministry. Carol, a member of St. Andrew’s in Park Ridge, reports that she has “not found one mother who hasn’t gotten their child in for pediatric care,” since she began volunteering at Kum Bah Yah House four years ago. Carol and another nurse from her congregation, Ingrid Thompson, are much needed volunteers who use their professional skills in ministry and service to the mothers of North Lawndale.
Despite improvements in local health-care since the ministry opened, significant challenges remain. Earline estimates that 98% of their client mothers are unmarried. Additionally, these young mothers are not well informed regarding their children’s personal development.
“They feed the babies way too early,” according to Earline. She reports that many young mothers she meets begin “putting cereal in their baby’s bottle as early as a month after birth.” Breastfeeding is the exception, not the rule, in North Lawndale and other economically disadvantaged communities. Earline estimates that less than 10% of the babies seen at Ebenezer’s clinic are breast fed. “They don’t have time to nurse,” Earline noted regrettably. “It’s simply easier to bottle feed,” she concluded.
Educating the mothers regarding good nutrition is an important component of the ministry. “These mothers sometimes think big babies are healthy,” Earline notes. “We’re trying to teach them something different.” Earline teaches the importance of vitamins in their children’s diet.
The nurses volunteering at the ministry use the Denver Developmental Activities research materials to both evaluate the young children’s progress, as well as educate their mothers regarding age-appropriate activities, development of speech and language, and small and large motor skills.
The ministry has developed its own intake forms and other records charting the young children’s progress between visits. This valuable monitoring information equips the nurses and other volunteers to properly counsel these young mothers.
Word of mouth and referrals by community agencies bring North Lawndale’s young mothers to Kum Bah Yah House. Rona Lewis, the mother of five children, age 11 to one, was referred by another community agency. Each of her children have benefited from the ministry, according to Rona.
Matilda Scott, mother of two young children, including two-year-old daughter Carmen Ortega, learned about Kum Bah Yah House from a friend.
Each of these mothers clearly appreciates the guidance provided by the ministry’s volunteers, in addition to the clothing, diapers, and personal care items dispensed as part of Kum Bah Yah House ministry to young mothers and their children.
While Ebenezer receives limited financial assistance from the Northern Illinois District, the congregation faces significant financial challenges as it seeks to reach out to the mothers of North Lawndale, and also to new families moving into Ezra Homes, the affordable housing project being funded through a coalition of churches including the Northern Illinois District of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, the Chicago Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Chicago Diocese of the Episcopal Church.
Click here to read more about the Ezra Homes initiative in North Lawndale, which recently completed three homes directly across the street from Ebenezer on Harding Boulevard, just south of Roosevelt Road.
Sparks readers who wish to support the ministry of Ebenezer can do so by indicating “Ebenezer, North Lawndale” when making contributions through People Ablaze!Click here to contribute.
Larry Ulrich is Director of People Ablaze!
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