Debbie Mount said that living in a city like Bridgeport, where comforts and conveniences are a way of life, it’s hard to imagine a place in the world where doctors and nurses need hand-rolled bandages.

 

Yet, there are.

 

Mount and several women of Simpson Creek Baptist Church American Baptist Women spent Tuesday inside the church Family Life Center where they tore, sewed and rolled bandages which will be sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

The bandages are used there in a variety of ways, explained Willa Brand of Simpson Creek Baptist Church ABW.

 

Some are used, after being sterilized, to wrap wounds, make casts, dressings, slings and holding IV bottles or as mosquito netting. They are hung in doorways and windows to keep out insects, she said. “The four by four inch squares are used to prepare arms for injections, wipe thermometers and cover open containers.”

 

Along with one man and four home-schooled children, the women worked together in the White Cross mission project.

 

“Some were tearing sheets into three-inch strips and some were sewing them together and others were measuring them to five-yard lengths,” Brand said. “The strips were then rolled into tight bundles.”

 

Brand serves as the leader of the mission project. Mount is one of several annual participants. She said she loves the project for several reasons.

 

“The bandages and other items we make fill a simple, but specific need, plus we get to visit and fellowship with others while we work,” she said. “It is sort of like gardening in that the work is relaxing and good for your heart and soul.”

 

The White Cross mission project is an American Baptist Women’s mission project started by two women from Cleveland, Ohio, who after World War I wanted to continue the work they had been doing for the American Red Cross. The project serves international and domestic needs.

“For here in the United States, we cut quilt pieces which will be sent to a church or Christian center that is teaching women to sew,” Brand said. “We also have been collecting items that we will be delivering to the Weirton Christian Center in Weirton, West Virginia later this month.”

 

In past years, the women have made about 250 bandages on work day. The goal is 200. Because attendance was down on Tuesday, only 93 bandages were completed.