Mothers’ Union Has Active Membership

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 2

Mothers’ Union Has Active Membership

Some women have to make a two-day trek, carrying their fobd, their bedding and their babies when they attend the monthly meetings of the Mothers’ Union on the tiny island of Ugi in the Solomon Islands, said Mrs Elizabeth Palmer who is in New Zealand to attend the triennial council meeting of the Mothers’ Union in Wellington.

As president of the Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of Melanesia, Mrs Palmer heads a membership of about 2000 women scattered throughout the many islands of the Solomons and New Hebrides.

She was elected at a conference in Honiara last December. The conference was held after a training course for leaders held in Suva and financed by the Mothers’ Union of New Zealand. Two mission boats spent a week gathering the women from the outlying islands to bring them to the conference, said Mrs Palmer. Although the native women are very shy, they accepted office willingly, said Mrs Palmer, who was educated in Auckland. Her husband, who Is headmaster of the senior primary school on the island of Ugi and is a priest of the Anglican church, also re-

ceived his theological training in New Zealand. When the Mothers’ Union was first established in Melanesia, there were few native leaders but now the movement is indigenous. Mrs Palmer is the second native leader to head the movement

Leaders must be able to read, write and speak English. Although women are now given opportunities in education, this was not always so, and not all members were eligible for leadership.

Pidgin English Mrs Palmer said there were 34 members in the Ugi branch. Meetings were conducted in Pidgin English and there was an interpreter for those who did not speak Pidgin English. English was now the language of education and there was no language problem with the younger generation, said Mrs Palmer. Women leave home with food, bedding and clothing early one morning and arrive in the village where the meeting is to be held in the late afternoon. The meeting is held the next morning. It

ends with a brisk game of basketball.

Before long the union hopes to have a bouse so that the members will have somewhere to stay when they come to the meetings, Mrs Palmer said.

Although they concentrate on Bible study, members are also taught hygiene, food values and child care, said Mrs Palmer. Older women were skilled at traditional handicrafts but did not realise that sale of this work was a good way of raising money. “We explain this to them, but we do not have to teach them the crafts. But we sometimes have to teach the younger women.

“We teach the young women how to look after their babies. We also teach them to improve their diet and how to make better use of fruit and vegetables.”