2016 was a big year for the Cumpio Clinic and Birth Center in Tanauan, Philippines. We commemorated the anniversary of the terrible deadly super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda on November 8th, and could not help being amazed and full of gratitude when we considered the progress this clinic has made since that day it was smashed into small shards of brick and morter only three years ago.
Not only have we completed the rebuilding, but life is bursting forth! 253 babies were born in the new building this year, and more than 600 other maternity care exams were performed, such as prenatal care and postnatal and newborn check-ups.
In addition, in 2016 we finished building the addition of a multipurpose room onto the clinic. This wonderful open and friendly space is now used for community health teachings. Parents come to learn about healthy parenting, infant feeding, child survival, immunizations, and many other life-saving topics. Every class is free of charge, just as the maternity care given on site is free of charge as well.
We would love to get your input on other parenting topics to teach in the former disaster zone, utilizing our new multi-purpose building. Send ideas or suggestions to: info@mercyinaction.com
Blessings to all our donors and wishing you the very best for a Happy New Year!
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Our volunteers make us very happy! And we have wonderful things to celebrate with them right now.
We are celebrating the birth of a new baby for our volunteers Rina and her husband Clark. Congratulations and welcome to the world, baby xodus. Rina writes: "When Exodus is a lil bit bigger, I am going back to Cumpio Midwife Clinic to volunteer again. Even though i am a mother of four now I still want to do the volunteering I like. ...I share anything i learn to any pregnant women i can encounter about births."
And we are celebrating the graduation from Midwifery College of one of our dear volunteers Aurore, who came to the Philippines this summer to bring baby clothes, medical supplies, and a donation of chairs for the new teaching hall we are building. She writes: "I am back in Switzerland after almost 5 weeks there! It was really a nice time and I was very happy to see everyone. I was able to offer baby clothes to Nerissa and to Cecille for their birth center. All donations come from friends and churches in Switzerland! 30kg in total!"
We are so thankful for our volunteers, who bring so much joy into our lives and the lives of our patients. We wish them well as they raise babies, begin their careers in midwifery, and continue to serve Mercy In Action.
And a big thank you to all our Global Giving donors. Though we may not be able to have you with us helping in person, your donations make this ministry possible. You are also volunteers in this work, and we celebrate you!
Outreach is an part of providing maternity care, especially in a disaster zone where most families do not have vehicles to drive to the doctor or midwife's office. The midwives at Cumpio Clinic, sponsored by Mercy In Action, are excellent at providing home visits for pregnancy and postpartum care to the homes around Tanauan on Leyte island. This is where the disastrous super typhoon of 2013 hit the hardest, and the community is still struggling to recover.
Thank you for being a donor to Mercy In Action through Global Giving. Your donations make a world of difference to those families still living in temporary shelters in the disaster zone. Through your generosity, they have caring and thoughtful midwives and childbirth educators coming right into their own communities and homes to help them safely navigate pregnancy and early child raising. Because of your donations, they have a safe, clean, and well-stocked birth center to give birth in, and kind, compassionate, and well-trained staff to assist them.
If you want to help further, please write to us with your ideas or encouragements at info@mercyinaction.com.
Or consider mailing a donation of new or gently used newborn baby clothes and blankets; we will make sure it gets into the community where it is needed the most:
Mercy In Action
c/o Nerissa Reynera Cumpio
Zone 2 Brgy. Sto.
Nino Tanauan
Leyte 6502, Philippines
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Another room is going up this month on the Cumpio Clinic, and not a minute too soon! We are bursting at the seams with parents who are eager for the health teachings and child survival educational programs we offer. It is like life water to the survivors of the disaster. And we just want to say a heartfelt Thank You to our many wonderful donors who give to our disaster recovery work through Global Giving.
Together we are helping people rebuild their lives after the worst storm to make landfall on the planet last November 2013. It is true that while the news showed all the buildings that were destroyed, the worse crisis was the human face of the tragedy; the loss of life, the deep inconsolable grief, the injuries and disease among the survivors, and the multitude of homeless people. With clinics and hospitals also damaged and destroyed, there was no safe place for the babies to be born.
And that is where Mercy In Action came in. Responding to the immediate disaster, we took a team and flew in soon after the airport was repaired enough to re-open, and we set up tents to deliver babies at ground zero. But of course this was a temporary band aide on a human disaster of enormous proportions. We knew we had to help rebuild, and you helped us do that. By 6 months after the disaster, we had begun rebuilding one birth center and clinic that had been smashed into rubble. By 9 months after the disaster, I was privileged to attend the grand opening, and babies started having a safe, clean, equipped place to be born again. And by two years after the disaster, we raised enough money to rebuild a home for the midwife Nerissa and her family.
In this new birth center, Cumpio Clinic, (named after the original clinic that was destroyed) all maternity care is offered FREE OF CHARGE, and they teach childbirth and parenting classes, cramming dozens of women and babies into the clinic waiting room. This is especially difficult on the clinic staff because they are having babies born day and night, and prenatal check ups coming in and out, all the while trying to carry on good parent education.
Mercy In Action, with a partial grant from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, is committed to building on to the existing clinic and expanding their ability to teach public health as a free service to the community.
Anna at Center for Disaster Philanthropy just sent us this letter, and I quote her: "It makes me ever so happy to start my Monday by sending you this note. Attached please find an agreement letter for $4,750 to go towards the completion of the multi-purpose room at Cumpio Clinic. I look forward to hearing about the continuation of yours and Nerissa’s wonderful work there!"
Please consider helping us with the rest we will need to put up this Multipurpose hall for health education (approximately $3,000 more.) Prevention of problems in pregnancy and prevention of childhood illnesses is one of the most important things we can be involved in at this stage of the disaster recovery.
And if you have suggestions for teaching aides or topics to teach to new mothers, or have any questions about our current disaster recovery phase, please feel free to contact me at info@mercyinaction.com.
Bless you, thank you, keep praying for the recovery...it is a long long road back from Typhoon Haiyan.
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In the super typhoon named Haiyan that hit the Philippines November 8th, 2013, terrible things happened. Some parents we met experienced the horror of having their young child or little baby ripped from their arms and washed away by the waves. Such was the case for a young couple named Beth and Jose. A year after the disaster Beth was fortunate enough to give birth in the newly rebuilt Cumpio Clinic in Tanauan, the clinic and birth center that Mercy In Action rebuilt with help from Global Giving donors. She was so happy to be alive and to have a new baby, but her heart was also hurt by the birth defect she saw on her new baby son's face.
This week, Mercy In Action is funding the corrective surgery that baby John needs.
His mother wrote this heartfelt note to me:
"Ma'am thank you so much for the big help to my son that would change for good in his entire life. My son owe the part of his good life from mercy in action. On Monday December 28, we will go to hospital to have a surgery schedule for Jeffrey. Ma'am Vicki a big thank you for the help. We pray for a more good things to come in mercy in action."
Can't you just hear the mother's love for her child come through these words? She wants what every mother wants, she wants what all of us want--just for her child to have a good life.
Please continue to support the good work of Mercy In Action in the disaster zone. Right now there is $15,000 available in Matching Funds for the disaster zone in the Philippines, available to be matched dollar for dollar by any donation to our Mercy In Action Philippine Disaster-Medical Response and Recovery Project.
God Bless you and thank you for the difference you make in the life of real people with real needs.
* Names are changed to protect the dignity and privacy of the people we serve.
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