Keeping Student Midwives in School

Bumi Sehat faced an unusual situation that led to us creating this micro-project. We were running a campaign to re-certify our staff midwives with required ongoing training. Our management team was approached by a midwifery student  in her last year of training who didn't have the funds to complete her education.

Maria was a student midwife from Sumba, one of Indonesia's poorer islands. Due to the pandemic and floods in Sumba, her family lost both income and assets and were unable to make the final school payments. Unless she could make the final payments, her degree would be withheld and Maria wouldn't be able to work as a midwife.

Maria wants to return to Sumba to practice midwifery. Sumba's maternal mortality rate is higher than the national average and they urgently need midwives from their own cultural tradition.

With donations from GlobalGiving, and a walk-in donor who paid cash when he heard Maria's story, we were able to pay the outstanding balance on Maria's education. 

Maria is currently doing a year-long paid internship at Bumi Sehat in Bali, where she will gain valuable experience from our senior midwives and complete her training. Next year, she will be returning to Sumba to set up a practice or work in a cllinic or hospital setting.

Thanks to generous donors like you, Maria will return to her own island as a registered, trained and experienced midwife. Her skills will help to address Sumba's high maternal mortality problem.