By Vicki Penwell | Executive Director
In the rural mountains above Subic Bay, Philippines, pregnant women and new mothers used to go without maternity care. It was too far (and treacherous) to walk down the steep mountain trails, with several river fords, while pregnant or with a tiny newborn, to reach one of the clinics in the town below, and anyway, they were often turned away, for lack of money to pay for the visit to a medical professional
Mercy In Action has been changing that since 2010. That was the year we began outreach visits with our local midwives to the mountain people and Aeta tribes who dwell in the high and rural places off the grid. All of this outreach care is free of charge to the people, because it is an important part of our strategy for reducing maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in rural, low-resource areas of our country.
During the time of outreach, we met a family, who delivered their last baby in our birth center. This family was the first to stay in our newly built Maternity Waiting homes on the land we bought at the trailhead leading up to the mountain villages. They later came to work for Mercy In Action, and we scholarshipped their eldest daughter to midwifery college. She is now earning her Bachelor degree while continuing to serve as an outreach midwife to the mountains.
By Vicki In Penwell | Executive Director
By Vicki In Penwell | Executive Director, Mercy In Action
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