Perhaps I am not the typical picture of a good Indian mother. Perhaps I have never just played with dolls, but made army training obstacle courses and racetracks as a girl child. As a single parent perhaps there are many things about my mothering that could be frowned on… mmmm perhaps. Yet, this Mother’s Day I reflect on my own mothering, and this is what I see: MOMZO – who goes to public hospitals to carry and love abandoned babies armed with hand made blankets and prayers.
MOMZO – who takes sandwiches for mothers waiting long hours in queues in those hospitals with sick babies.
MOMZO – who goes to public rape crisis centre with teddy bears for children who find themselves there.
MOMZO – who goes to the unwanted often filthy addicts who she sends back home, back to families, back to their own mother’s by loving on them until they remember their own moms.
MOMZO – who goes to court for many children not my own who have no voice to advocate for them to have restorative justice.
MOMZO -who crochets 1000’s of beanies for babies left by their moms often using wool donations.
MOMZO – who sends 100s of girls in really rural places menstrual products that are green solutions which will keep them regularly in school for at least 7 years.
MOMZO – who hosts parties for child headed households and Aids orphans 500 at a time. Playing with the kids and giving them McD’s Happy Meals.
MOMZO – who pays rent for someone to have a roof over her head until she gets back on her feet.
MOMZO – Who collects school shoes and distributes them to bare feet.
MOMZO – who runs holiday programs and study skills workshops for staff’s children.
MOMZO – who does winter soup kitchens often borrowing big pots from family to cook.
MOMZO – whose legacy work has enabled the prevention of sexual violence in 120 countries.
MOMZO – who travels for work with extra suitcases filled with clothes for a disabled boy across the border who needs them.
MOMZO -whose favourite waitress is pregnant and who will get handcrafted personal gifts and grannies love .
MOMZO – whose cupcakes and cookies have done loads of birthdays for children of families and friends alike.
MOMZO – who goes under the protection of the police captain to rescue children in trap houses or chaos and crisis.
MOMZO – who takes coaching into communities building systems around children, working with police, social workers, parents, faith workers to rescue and restore children.
MOMZO – who takes her annual leave, travels and volunteers are boy’s shelters while camping outside to sow into children’s lives who know the firsthand impact of addiction
And so the story goes…….
And perhaps my own children will be in therapy in their 40s talking about how I handed them over to a black nanny so I could work. And I will say – but you are every race within you and one day you will see how much that means to have such richness sown into your life . Or perhaps they will say they were raised mainly on sandwiches cos their mother only learned to cook in her late 40s, or maybe they will say they had to share me with so many children, or hate me for dragging them into informal settlements with soup – and I will say – look at your own kindness now. Look at how you choose to give treats of Streetwise meals in lieu of birthday prezzies or how you look into the eyes of street beggars, hug them and know their personal stories… hmmm.
I often wonder what my own kids may think….. but of this I am sure. For all the many seeds that their MOMZO has sown over the decades of time, my own sons and their children and children’s children will eat the fruit. And for all the voices that have always said – not maternal, a good granny rather than great mom, I say I am and have always been a force to be reckoned with – An IDWALA -A Rock on which Christ has built His church, a church for the voiceless and forgotten.
Mother and a MOMZO also….. I have never known how else to mother, for your child is my child and my heart holds them all.
Mothering is something that happens beyond gender, beyond biology. It is the love that won’t give up until all her children are safe, fed and home.
HAPPY MOTHERS _ MOMZO DAY Fam.
Idwala, you are and I salute you all
Nishani Ford
Mother’s Day Reflection 2025
MOMZO – who takes sandwiches for mothers waiting long hours in queues in those hospitals with sick babies.
MOMZO – who goes to public rape crisis centre with teddy bears for children who find themselves there.
MOMZO – who goes to the unwanted often filthy addicts who she sends back home, back to families, back to their own mother’s by loving on them until they remember their own moms.
MOMZO – who goes to court for many children not my own who have no voice to advocate for them to have restorative justice.
MOMZO -who crochets 1000’s of beanies for babies left by their moms often using wool donations.
MOMZO – who sends 100s of girls in really rural places menstrual products that are green solutions which will keep them regularly in school for at least 7 years.
MOMZO – who hosts parties for child headed households and Aids orphans 500 at a time. Playing with the kids and giving them McD’s Happy Meals.
MOMZO – who pays rent for someone to have a roof over her head until she gets back on her feet.
MOMZO – Who collects school shoes and distributes them to bare feet.
MOMZO – who runs holiday programs and study skills workshops for staff’s children.
MOMZO – who does winter soup kitchens often borrowing big pots from family to cook.
MOMZO – whose legacy work has enabled the prevention of sexual violence in 120 countries.
MOMZO – who travels for work with extra suitcases filled with clothes for a disabled boy across the border who needs them.
MOMZO -whose favourite waitress is pregnant and who will get handcrafted personal gifts and grannies love .
MOMZO – whose cupcakes and cookies have done loads of birthdays for children of families and friends alike.
MOMZO – who goes under the protection of the police captain to rescue children in trap houses or chaos and crisis.
MOMZO – who takes coaching into communities building systems around children, working with police, social workers, parents, faith workers to rescue and restore children.
MOMZO – who takes her annual leave, travels and volunteers are boy’s shelters while camping outside to sow into children’s lives who know the firsthand impact of addiction
And so the story goes…….
And perhaps my own children will be in therapy in their 40s talking about how I handed them over to a black nanny so I could work. And I will say – but you are every race within you and one day you will see how much that means to have such richness sown into your life . Or perhaps they will say they were raised mainly on sandwiches cos their mother only learned to cook in her late 40s, or maybe they will say they had to share me with so many children, or hate me for dragging them into informal settlements with soup – and I will say – look at your own kindness now. Look at how you choose to give treats of Streetwise meals in lieu of birthday prezzies or how you look into the eyes of street beggars, hug them and know their personal stories… hmmm.
I often wonder what my own kids may think….. but of this I am sure. For all the many seeds that their MOMZO has sown over the decades of time, my own sons and their children and children’s children will eat the fruit. And for all the voices that have always said – not maternal, a good granny rather than great mom, I say I am and have always been a force to be reckoned with – An IDWALA -A Rock on which Christ has built His church, a church for the voiceless and forgotten.
Mother and a MOMZO also….. I have never known how else to mother, for your child is my child and my heart holds them all.
Mothering is something that happens beyond gender, beyond biology. It is the love that won’t give up until all her children are safe, fed and home.
HAPPY MOTHERS _ MOMZO DAY Fam.
Idwala, you are and I salute you all
Nishani Ford
Mother’s Day Reflection 2025
Happy mother’s day to you Nishani, I celebrate the strong, courageous, committed and dedicated mother in you. A mother who never gave up on her children and above all a mother who has been selfless in sharing her own story from the heart, her own children’s experiences as she encountered them, her spiritual journey from the past to the now. You are a great inspiration. Sisterhood is so proud of you.
Thank you for your kind kind words