Madame Simone Baigo-Dari wears her faith on her sleeve. Well, actually, on her whole body. The bright red, yellow, and blue dress and hat she wore during a September visit to the churchwide women's organization in Chicago lift up the Central African Republic (C.A.R.) women's organization for which she is president. In a word, she evangelizes through her clothing.

Clothes help make the witness
"Like evangelization, [our clothes] make you aware of what we are doing," she says through ELCA French interpreter Mytch Dorvilier (at right in photo). (Formerly a French colony, the C.A.R. won its independence in 1960.) A practical reason to wear the colorful dress also exists — one Women of the ELCA participants might appreciate: "It is good for us because when we have to meet, it's easy to find each other."

A Lutheran since 1984, Baigo-Dari serves as president of the 4,200 -member Femmes pour Christ de la RCA (Women of the Central African Republic for Christ), a position similar to the one Carmen Richards holds for Women of the ELCA. A former lawyer, civil administrator, and school teacher, she was in the U.S. for the 2005 ELCA Global Mission Events and to visit C.A.R. companion synods of Texas-Louisiana/Gulf Coast, Western North Dakota, and Eastern North Dakota.

Women begin health initiative
Like Women of the ELCA, the C.A.R. women's organization has begun its own health initiative. One of their primary concerns is sex education, specifically contraception.

"Women in C.A.R. are marginalized and put aside by men because it is a patriarchal society," she said. "The parents only want to send the boys to school, and the women must stay home and do agricultural things."

As a leader of women, Baigo-Dari realized the organization must help women become "self sufficient" by educating them on health issues around childcare, HIV, and contraception "so we don't have too many children anymore."

[Contraception] "is a big issue with men," said the mother of nine. "Sometimes they say, 'Why are you doing this?' But how can we have a child every year? We are tiring of it. We want to have children, but not every year."

Terri Lackey is managing editor, Lutheran Woman Today magazine.

Copyright © 2005 Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for Women of the ELCA in congregations and synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.