A Calgary non-profit that supports pregnant Black women and families wants help to expand

A grassroots non-profit that helps pregnant women arriving in Calgary, mostly fromAfricancountries, says demand is growing for Black-specific supports.

Immigrants from Africa are a growing demographic in the city and Clare Jagunnaand her non-profit, Hands Lifting Hearts,is here to help.

Run by Jagunna and asmall team of volunteers,her organization is focused on helping pregnant mothers arriving in Calgary with no friends, family or experienceof life in Canada.

Since 2021 she's beenhelpingnewcomers with every aspect of settling into a new city and navigating parenthood.

It's something she saysneeds to be tailored to the Black experience by people that understand them and their journey.

Her organization provides pre-birth, labour and post birth support, help for women experiencing miscarriage and early disabilities among other things.

"We realized coming to a new country where you're probably alone with very little information, we need to integrate them into the community to make sure we settle them well and make Canada a new home," said Jagunna, who came to Canada from Nigeria.

She describesthe relationship she forgeswith the newcomers she comes into contact with as a partnership.

She starts withfinding themaccommodation and coverseverything from building a network of Black friends, helping themfindjobs andconnectsthem with mental health support andthe medical help they'll need while startingafamily.

"Sometimeswe help connect themto doctors from their home countries, just to make them feel comfortable. When they see someone with the same colour and same language they are able to interact," she said.

"Theyare more open and it's like transitioning from home to home, not from home to a noman'sland," she said.

Jagunna also helps immigrants battle the loneliness and separationfrom family, who would usually play a big part in a pregnancy and welcoming a new baby into the world.

"Back home with a new baby everybody is all over you, they want to help in every way and when the baby comes everyone is excited. It's like that adage one woman bears the child but the whole community looks after the child."

She says new mums arriving from African countries need a support network to succeed and thrive.

"We drivethem to medicalappointments, to shopping, make a baby plan, and beingthere in the labour room," said Jagunna, adding thatmanyAfrican men don't accompany their wives during labour.

Her group of around ten volunteers gets womens' homes ready for coming back from hospital, cleaning and preparing quality meals to make the first days and weeks easier, even providing volunteers to help with the baby to give mums some respite.

Women that have received help through Jagunna's organization says the difference it made to their livesis difficult to put into words.

Chinwe Achebe can't hold back the tears when she talks about the support she found after arriving in Canada from Nigeria four years ago, pregnant and with no supports in place.

"It wassuper tough. I don't know if it was my saddest momentor my miracle moment," said Achebe. "It wasn't funny, being a new mum, being in a new country, it was so hard I can't explain it."

Achebe says being connected withother womenin the same situation,and withothers who've gone through the same experiences themselves, was a hugehelp.

"For me community is highly important. You can't do without it, you'd be lost, confused, everything. We all need support coming to a new place where everything is overwhelming."

Jagunna opened her home to Achebe, providing her and her family with a place to live in her first days and weeks here.

"When I think about it, it's amazing. Every day when I see Clare I say she was God sent. She doesn't know us from anywhere, she doesn't know my family, my parents. Who does that?," she says, wiping her eyes behind her glasses.

"She gave me a home, a parent, she was everything. We didn't know left from right, we didn't know what to do. She showed me another version of life and it changed my narrative onlife. You don't need to know a person, just be good and be all you can be," said Achebe.

As part of the support,Achebe and her husband were alsoconnected to keysettlement agencies including:Centre for Newcomers, Calgary CatholicImmigrationSociety and Calgary Immigrant Women's Association.

"She made me realize that support is everywhere."

Four years later, Achebesits at the kitchen table in her southeasthome with her three-year-old son, Chukwudum, taking a short screenbreak from her job while flipping through the pages of a math workbook.

She got here one step at a time,creditingJagunna and her volunteers for her and her husband's success to date in both her life and career.

Achebe says Jagunna now needs support herself to help moremothers and families like hers, with more and more new arrivals coming to Alberta from African countries.

Jagunna says she's starting togetlots of referrals and her organization is getting busier as word spreads about the help she offers.

"People say 'I have this couple coming, or have thiswoman coming, can you support her?', and I've supported Nigerians, Ghanaians, Kenyans and people from Senegal,and other communities."

While she needs to cover the costs of gas, baby supplies andfood,to her it's about something much bigger.

"Having that avenue to give myself completely to humanity, that gives me a lot of satisfaction. Yes, I need money,but when you serve the people the money comes after. It gives me satisfaction and joy to help women," she said.

Jagunna takes donations and raises money via her Hands Lifting Hearts website and word of mouthto fund her work but says the next step in 2023 is applying for grants and government funding to expand the unique serviceshe offers.

"It's about building relationships that last a long time," she said.

"We intend to build a community."