Kansas City Mom Collective is thrilled to kick off a series of interviews with local non-profit organizations that serve Kansas City’s moms and children. We hope to introduce you to some very worthy organizations and, even better, give you the little sign you’ve been looking for to get involved or donate as you’re able.
Our first organization is Uzazi Village, a nonprofit dedicated to decreasing maternal and infant health inequity among Black and Brown communities. Uzazi’s program director, Kellye McCrary, was kind enough to spend some time with me recently, explaining all the wonderful outreach services Uzazi Village provides to local Black and Brown moms. As a former membership director with YMCA, an encounter with a Y member led Kellye to not only to investigate the role of doulas (a concept completely new to her), but to ultimately become a doula through Uzazi Village’s doula training program. As doulas, Kellye and her counterparts provide non-medical physical, mental and emotional support to pregnant Black and Brown moms through their pregnancies, labor, delivery and post-partum. The doula role looks different for each mom – some need cheerleading, some need help advocating for their desired birth plan, some need more information on their patient rights.
Q. Why does Uzazi exist?
Kellye: “Black and Brown women are 243% more likely than white women to die during childbirth. Our co-founder and CEO, Hakima Tafunzi Payne aka Mama Hakima, was recently interviewed on KCUR’s Up To Date about this very statistic. We’re just trying to change the game and help these moms who sometimes don’t know… just giving them information so they can make informed decisions – to have body autonomy, decide for themselves, and advocate for themselves.”
Kellye and I spoke quite a bit about why Black and Brown women need help to advocate for themselves. She told me stories about Black and Brown moms in the hospital for labor and delivery who are more likely to be screened for drugs than their white counterparts because of unfair criteria. Maybe mom is tested simply because she is Black or Brown, or on medicaid, or because her partner/spouse/baby’s father smells of marijuana in the hospital. Kellye has seen this result in a mother being forced to leave the hospital without her baby because Department of Children and Family Services intervened. While this very well could be the best outcome for mom and baby in some situations, Uzazi is relentlessly working on policy change so that all mothers are tested, because the policy is applied fairly versus allowing subjective criteria to dictate drug testing.
Q. Is Uzuzi Village just about doulas?
Kellye: “Not at all! Even if a mom doesn’t need a doula, we have a free lactation clinic, 
free diapers from our diaper depot, and free clothes for moms and babies from our boutique. All of our services can be found on our website. We also offer training through our doula training and lactation consultant mentorship programs.”
Q. How do members of the community end up connected to Uzazi Village?
Kellye: “Clients end up at Uzazi because of social media, word of mouth, maybe they work in a hospital and hear the name, maybe they Google us. We also get a lot of Facebook referrals.”
Q. Where do you see Uzazi Village in 5 years?
Kellye: “That is really a question for Mama Hakima but, with her vision in mind, and with what we’re working toward now, in five years we are a thriving prenatal clinic serving Black and Brown moms, and a possible birth house or center. We continue working to get policies and laws changed, getting Mama Hakima’s culturally congruent training out there in hospitals and care centers. If we can change the teaching, change the mindset, change the curriculum, we can change the outcomes. Ideally, in five years, we will also have more folks on staff. We wear many hats and we rely on many people outside of Uzazi to make the mission happen.”
Q. What are the most impactful ways Kansas City’s collective of mothers could impact Uzazi Village’s work?
Follow Us on Social Media
You can follow Uzazi Village on Facebook and Instagram. Please also consider following Mama Hakima, as she offers culturally congruent training to help people understand historical and current health inequities in Black and Brown communities.
Read the Books
Mama Hakima recommends the following to further your own education:
- Reproductive Justice by Dana-Ain Davis
- Reproducing Race by Khiara Bridges
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington
Donate Items
Everything we do, we do for free. We don’t charge for anything. We charge for training, but when it comes to services to the community, it’s all free. We have an Amazon wish list and we always need:
- Diapers size 4 and up
- Wipes
- Maternity clothes
- Baby clothes
- Nursing bras, nursing supplies, storage bags, new pumps
- Used clean car seats
- Strollers
- Pack-n-Plays
Donate Money
We have several ways to donate – Venmo, Cashapp, Paypal.
Donate Your Time
We host monthly volunteer training sessions. Now is always a good time to get involved!
Thanks for taking a few minutes of your day to learn more about Uzazi Village. Please visit their website or call the Uzazi Village office at 816-451-3718 for more information on all of their outreach services and how you can get involved.
