Help Women who Help Women thru Midwife Training

Our Midwife Training Project received over $26,617 in donations from 386 donors and was 75% funded of the $30,000 goal. We'd like to especially thank our 30 monthly donors who contribute to this project on a regular basis. As we approached our original funding goal of $30,000, we made the decision to raise the goal to $36,000 so we can ensure that all our junior midwives can finish their training as well.

We're sending all of our midwives back to school for an extra year as required by new Indonesian Health Department regulations. This way, they can keep their licenses and their jobs at our clinics—and most importantly—keep delivering the gentle, loving care that Bumi Sehat gives every mother, regardless of her family's ability to pay.

So far, we've been focussing on re-certifying our senior midwives. Now, we need to take the next step and ensure that our junior midwives are also re-certified. With your support, we'll meet this goal as well!

One of our next midwives who will receive her advanced training is Sri. 

Sri never imagined when she was little that she would become a midwife. Her mother was so grateful to the midwife who safely delivered Sri that she urged her daughter to become a midwife as well. With her mother's support, Sri attended midwifery school for 3 years. She became a doctor's assistant at a private clinic before finally applying, and being accepted, at Bumi Sehat.

Sri has been part of the Bumi Sehat team for 5 years now. She says she has learned a lot about midwifery and about herself. While Sri originally felt that being a midwife was her mother's dream for her, Sri now feels this is her true calling as well. She says that helping new mothers through childbirth is not just about using her medical skills, but also allowing her to express feelings of love, affection and happiness to support both mothers and welcome babies into the world.

Sri wants to continue to help patients and continue to learn how to be a better, more compassionate midwife. She looks forward to increasing and updating her knowledge and midwifery skills by continuing her education.

So far, our Midwife Training Project has received over $21,000 in donations from 260 donors and is 72% funded. We'd like to especially thank our 30 monthly donors who contribute to this project on a regular basis.

We're sending six of our midwives back to school for an extra year as required by new Indonesian Health Department regulations. This way, our midwives can keep their licenses and their jobs at our clinics—and most importantly—keep delivering the gentle, loving care that Bumi Sehat gives every mother, regardless of her family's ability to pay.

We'd like to tell you personal stories about two of our Bumi midwives, who are being trained thanks to your donations. 

Midwife Nevi

Nevi has been a midwife with Bumi Sehat for nine years. Her grandmother was a midwife and her parents run a market stall. Nevi was determined to follow her in her grandmother's footsteps. The family borrowed the money to pay for her college education. Nevi contributed by tutoring fellow students for a small fee and by getting scholarships. After graduation, she worked in a small public health clinic while she studied midwifery at night school. While doing research for her program, Nevi first heard about Bumi Sehat. She liked the way that Bumi Sehat midwives give loving, gentle care to patients and she joined the staff in 2014. Novi says her practice as a midwife has made her a better person. When she gave birth to her own son and daughter, Navi says she experienced first-hand how valuable it was for a woman to receive gentle, loving birth care from midwives.

Midwife Wayan

At 54, Wayan is one of Bumi Sehat's senior midwives. She's worked in the field for 25 years. Her aunt was a midwife and Wayan grew up watching her aunt help babies to be born, and felt it was noble work. This motivated Wayan to become a midwife herself. It was hard for Wayan to return to study after so many years out of school. However, she's motivated by the thought that by getting the extra year of training, as required, she can keep delivering babies and stay practicing as a midwife; otherwise, she would have to retire early.

We're getting close to funding this project and need only $9000 more to finish paying for our midwives to get their extra year of education.   

So far, our Midwife Training Project has received over $6000 in donations from 104 donors and is 20% funded. We'll be highlighting this project during our July Bonus Day campaign on GlobalGiving. 

We're sending 6 of our midwives back to school for an extra year as required by new Indonesian Health Department regulations. This way, our midwives can keep their licenses and their jobs at our clinics, and most importantly, keep delivering the gentle, loving care that Bumi Sehat gives every mother, regardless of her family's ability to pay.

We'd like to tell you personal stories about two of our Bumi midwives. 

Midwife Suastini

Suastini's family was thrown into dire financial straits when she was 12. She watched her mom give birth to a younger sibling at home—in a lot of pain due to complications—because the family had no money to go to a hospital. Suastini was determined to become a midwife and became Bumi Sehat's first scholarship student. Today, Suastini helps hundreds of women from low-income households to give birth.

Suastini finished her fourth year of midwifery training and is currently studying an extra year to remain as a Certified Professional Midwife, thanks to your generosity. She has two young children of her own, one boy and one girl, who are both in elementary school. Suastini manages to juggle work, school and raising kids of her own!

Midwife Susanti

Susanti has been a midwife and part of the Bumi Sehat team for 17 years. She works hard to address maternal mortality and discrimination in childbirth. Susanti ensures our mothers and babies are healthy and experience loving gentle birth.

At first, Susanti thought she might have to retire—on a reduced pension—as she couldn't afford to go back to school for an extra year of training. But now she is able to keep her license up to date and continue to be part of Team Bumi.

Susanti is a real inspiration to younger midwives, as she has a wealth of experience and knowledge from her nearly 20 years of practice. Imagine if all this knowledge was lost because she had to take early retirement!

We still need to fully fund this project. Please mark your calendar for July 20 and help support our midwives in the next Bonus Day campaign. GlobalGiving will be making $400,000 in Matching Funds available to all particpating projects.