World experts say one of the best ways to help a community recover from disaster is to get their health facilities up and running again. Especially when that medical facility delivers babies. Birth is already fraught with dangers for mother and child in poor developing countries, and never more so than after a natural disaster, like happens often in the Philippines.
We are so very pleased to tell you that with your help, Mercy In Action met our goals for our initial disaster response and recovery on Leyte island, Philippines following the devastating 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda.) Through this GlobalGiving project, we helped more than 1500 victims of that disaster in tents at ground zero in 2013 and 2014, and began to rebuild in 2014. Our clinic and birth center for midwife Nerissa is complete, and around 25-30 babies are being born there each month.
But while this project on Leyte island is fully funded at this time, we are STILL MOVING FORWARD WITH RECOVERY AND REBUILDING! Mercy In Action has established a second disaster project to help another midwife, Lorina, rebuild a clinic and birth center on the adjoining island of Samar, which was also destroyed in Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.
Our newest GlobalGiving disaster recovery project is called "Rebuilding Birth Center after Disaster-Philippines"
The new link is : https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rebuilding-birth-center-after-disaster-philippines/
Thank you for your past generosity to the survivors, and your vision to help communities get back on their feet. We hope you will consider continuing to support the survivors and help untold thousands of newborn babies to survive in the future.
Let us hear from you with any questions, comments, or encouragement at info@mercyinaction.com.
God Bless you, and may it be a bright season and a happy new year for many as we complete one project together and move onto the next!
For the team, with gratitude and love,
Vicki
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I was asked recently if I could think of anything good that came out of a disaster. In the 26 years that my husband and I have worked in the Philippines with Mercy In Action, we have been through so many disasters that did damage, from typhoons to floods to fires, and even a shipwreck. But in 2013 we responded to one of the biggest global disasters when Super Typhoon Yolanda hit the coast of the Philippines. And have been part of the recovery process ever since, thanks to compassionate, caring donors like you.
The one positive thing that came out of that disaster was the world got to see the wonderfully resilient spirit of the Philippine people; it really shone throughout news coverage of that tragedy. And personally, we received grant money toward capacity building after the storm, and the local midwives really took advantage of that and were eager to learn new updated best-practices to be better at what they do – caring for pregnant women, midwifing births, and keeping newborns healthy.
As part of the recovery effort since 2014, Mercy In Action has brought various trainings to the local midwife community affected by the disaster. Within the first year, Mercy In Action sponsored and taught a five-month course in how birth facilities can keep all 10 steps of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative: 10 Steps to optional maternity services. In 2015 we invited Nerissa, the midwife we sponsor, to a week-long training in Olongapo on maternity care. Last summer Rose and I taught on Disaster First Aide for health care workers.
This coming month, we will bring a new set of trainings to the Tacloban area, a training in Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Breathe. Two Mercy In Action College of Midwifery graduates will be helping teach with Nerissa, and all area midwives will once again be invited. Rebuilding is a crucial step of disaster management; Mercy In Action is helping rebuild a strong midwifery community to help strengthen maternal and child health in the former disaster zone.
Thank you for the part you play as a Global Giving donor!
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We were honored to have Mercy In Action's very own board member and pediatrician, Dr. Tim Herndon, in Tanauan with us in June, all the way from the USA. As one of the board of directors back in 2013, he approved Mercy In Action to clean out half of our emergency savings account to care for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan when that terrible disaster hit, so it was a joy for us to be on Leyte island with him as he witnessed first hand the recovery and rebuilding phase, and saw all the good Mercy In Action has been doing with the rebuilt clinic and birth center. It was the perfect opportunity for Dr. Tim to participate (in the former disaster zone, currently recovering zone) as he used his talents and skills to treat over 65 children in one day.
Mercy In Action hosted a free children’s clinic on one of the days with Dr. Tim and a local Filipino pediatrician. It was a joy to see the two “kid doctors” working together and comparing notes on what is different and what is the same treating children’s needs in the two different countries. Our wonderful long-term volunteer Rina helped Dr. Tim and the mothers to communicate with her exceptional interpretation skills.
A team from Boise Journey Church was on hand to play with the children and at one point, they even got out guitars and treated us all to music while the sick children were being seen. Every child who came was offered face painting and a balloon animal of their choosing while waiting for the doctor.
Dr. Tim had brought a MAP box of medicines for sick children, and this was supplemented by a few runs to the local pharmacy by Rina and myself. I was very impressed to see fully functional pharmacies running again in the large towns.
And of course while we were there, babies were being born in the birth center, and newly created families were coming and going at all hours of the day and night.
Thank you for your donations to help Mercy In Action help mothers, children, families, and entire communities recover from natural disasters like Yolanda/Haiyan!
Together we make a difference! As one mother said during the free clinic "Thank you for all you do for us!"
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Denia* knew she was approaching the time of her baby’s birth, and did not know how she and her husband were going to get the money to pay for the delivery, or even where they would go. They had lost everything in the storm that hit their island in 2013. Leyte island was still recovering from the disaster that had destroyed most of the health care facilities. Luckily for Denia, generous donors from Global Giving and its partners had supported the work of Philippine NGO Mercy In Action, and Mercy In Action had rebuilt one birth center at the heart of the disaster zone. Mercy In Action’s Cumpio Clinic was open for business on the day that Denia began to feel labor pains, her neighbors brought her there, and best of all, there was NO CHARGE TO ANY PATIENT for the services. All maternity care is subsidized by Mercy In Action, to remove any and all barriers to care for the survivors.
Donors made the difference to Denia and her baby; she was able to deliver in a comfortable, up-to-date facility, was given the best evidence-based care, and went home with a healthy baby. She knows she is one of the lucky ones in the former disaster zone, because she found “Mercy”.
Do you want to keep providing “Mercy” to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines? You can do it by becoming ongoing donors for Mercy In Action’s projects, keeping birth safe, available, and affordable to all, no matter the circumstances. Because every baby deserved the best!
*Names have been changed for privacy.
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Marcy Grace still lives in temporary housing. Things are slowly getting back to normal on her small island in the Philippines three years after Super Typhoon Yolanda demolished her home and everything around her. Yolanda, (Known as Typhoon Haiyan in the rest of the world) was a game changer for everyone in the Philippines, and recovery has been long and painful. And never more so than for mothers who find themselves expecting new life amidst the ruins.
One shining light in the midst of recovery has been the Mercy In Action birth center and clinic, headed up by Licensed Midwife Nerissa Cumpio. Before the storm, Cumpio Clinic stood on the shores of the ocean in Tanauan, a small community on Leyte island. During the typhoon, this community took a direct hit, and all medical facilities were smashed into small pieces of cement and wood by the storm.
Thanks to the generosity of Global Giving donors, Mercy In Action was able to build this one clinic and birth center back to its former glory, and in fact rebuilt it even stronger and better than before the disaster.
Today, dozens of babies are born here per month; already more than 500 have entered the world here in the recovery phase of life after Yolanda.
So as Marcy Grace gazes at her tiny newborn beside her in the neat clean bed, as they both receive excellent attention and the best maternity care services money can buy (yet it is all free to her, subsidized by donors like you) she is thankful in her heart for this miracle of provision. She gives thanks, and leans down to kiss her baby.
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