Health Education Among the Ultra-poor

Dear Friends,

East Tibet. I got out of our 4x4, in the thin air by the side of the rutted muddy road near Rijie. About 10 Surmang Foundation Community Health Workers (CHWs) were waiting. No training program, no money, no pregnant women. Just us. Khampa Tibetans are very straightforward so I asked them, “If you could change anything about our work, what would it be?”

One, Palmo, stepped forward and spoke, shouting, almost crying. “You should have started 10 years earlier! So many mothers and babies who died, would be walking the earth with their loved ones now!” 

I was speechless. We started a program in an area that had among the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world. 1 in 15 pregnant women would die before or during delivery, 3x more dangerous than being a US soldier in Afghanistan. 1 in 5 babies would die before their second birthday. These are women and children who otherwise have no access to hospitals or doctors. 

Now in our Surmang area, your support has resulted in our 40 CHWs having reduced maternal mortality to zero and drastically reducing infant mortality. This is because of your help; please continue. 

Maybe you’ve read the stories in the newspapers about Tibet and you feel helpless. Here is something you can do to save lives. Your contributions, no matter what size, have a big impact. Please make a year-end gift so that we can continue to support the life-saving work of Palmo and 39 others like her in Tibet. 

Please visit http://surmang.org/get_involved/donate.html and help out, make a donation via groundspring.

We are small, with no big marketing budget. Every dollar, every yuan Renminbi, every euro counts. Yet we’ve delivered great value – our cost/birth is $130, which is about ½ of similar organizations in Africa. A gift of $130 pays for one birth. A gift of $50 supports a well-baby exam. $25 purchases a clean delivery kit.

Make your tax-deductible donation now:

http://surmang.org/get_involved/donate.html

through Globalgiving; Groundspring; or Paypal.

Thanks for your attention. 

Best,

Lee Weingrad

You can contact me directly leeweingrad@surmang.org or at home in China: 

+8610 6456 7767, via my Chinese cell phone +86138 0138 8266, leave a message in the USA: (888) 439 9991or write Julie Carpenter: Juliet@indra.com

Links:

• Donate Here