The first Safe Birth training follow up

One of our goals this month is to get around to each of the churches that sent ladies to the Safe Birth training at the end of October.  I am hoping to meet up with them in a more personal setting to touch base and see what their feedback is from the training, what skills they have been able to use, what they are struggling with and answer any questions.

Today was my first chance to get to sit down with a few of them!

Meet…the Safe Birth team from Pastor Gaston's church:

(left to right) Mickerline, Ginette, Celiane & Jeannise, known as “FiFi”

So, I opened our time together by asking them how things were going.

Celiane, sitting in the middle, quickly, but timidly raised her hand. Her face lit up as she stated that 8 days after the training...she delivered her niece’s baby. Wow!  

C's niece considered going to the hospital, but didn’t because she was scared (the hospitals here are known for extremely rude & disrespectful treatment of patients) Then her labor progressed too far for her to travel safely. Celiane said that she was nervous, but remembered everything, even how to deliver the placenta which was "a little challenging". It was her first time even attending a birth!! She glowed as she shared the details of bringing her “great niece” into the world.

Two other women had been using their blood pressure monitoring skills. Ginette helped her neighbor who had mild blood pressure issues. Mickerline said that her mom (Ginette) wasn’t feeling well, so she took her blood pressure and found it was dangerously high according to what we had taught. She knew to take her mom to the doctor immediately & said that the MD confirmed the BP reading, gave her medicine & now she is much better.

We talked further about various health issues, continuing skills development, and teamwork. Then I prayed over them and asked God to go before them with wisdom and protection as ministry opportunities arose. One of their greatest concerns is that while they are willing to serve, they have seen others in their culture blamed & killed when something went wrong - even when it couldn’t be helped. They know not to offer any care beyond their basic training and only as a last resort for women that would otherwise be delivering alone. Yet they boldly trust God with the fact that every circumstance of providing help may put them at risk for retaliation.

Please keep all of these brave women in your prayers!

What a fabulous follow up. I can't wait to hear what the other 60 women have been up to now...

Rebecca

Safe Birth training...day 1

While it isn't THE answer to the complex issues of women's health care availability, watching 30 women gather today to learn about childbirth and how to help each other deliver a little more safely in this medically challenged country was refreshing & exciting! We all noted how the women had a certain "glow" about them as they left this afternoon with their new skills, and heads brimming with information. 

DAY 2 tomorrow is the second group of women - from our 7 other church partners. Please keep ALL of us in your prayers as we continue to seek God's guidance and provision for top-quality maternity care for these women and their communities. 

Orphan Prevention

As our programs have succeeded in stabilizing over 240 children in the past 2 years post-quake, we've finally been able to turn our eyes toward the future here. World Orphans bases their orphan care on a holistic model, looking at every aspect of the situation at hand. It is a priority to seek to address the three C's - Church, Child, and Community in all of our projects and partnerships.

Here in Haiti with the home-based programs providing very effective care, Ted & Ron have begun to assist church partners in looking at some ideas for sustainability. One of the Haitian churches worked with their American partner to build a chicken house this summer. It will enable them to raise & sell chickens at market value, making a profit that will further the OVC (orphaned & vulnerable children) program that they are serving the community with. The first set of chicks will arrive shortly & be ready for market by the holidays!

Sustainability projects address one facet of orphan prevention. Poverty is a big one here, so we are continually working to research and develop appropriate ways to help the churches & caregiver families to find jobs and gain the skills needed to further stabilize and meet their spiritual, emotional & physical needs.

Last month, Jessica & I began the journey toward further orphan prevention from a medical standpoint. The first phase of our research & development is seeking practical ways to meet the great need for maternity & HIV care in these communities. Maternal & infant death rates are extremely high here and HIV is a silent killer that leaves orphaned and sometimes HIV+ children without families.

Putting our nursing insight to work, we held forums in 9 of our church communities. We sat down face-to-face with the women at each location to open up conversations, gather information, and answer questions regarding these two major topics. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of the needs and experiences of the women in regards to pregnancy, childbirth and HIV. 

We were blessed by their openness to share personal stories with us and to speak about the struggles and the needs of women in their communities. The response that echoed on as we moved from church to church was "Maternity care is absolutely our GREATEST need for women right now."  We listened intently and prayed with them over the situation, asking God to provide these resources, and as sisters in Christ, committed ourselves to seeking His guidance and being His servants.

Though I don't know exactly where our work in this area will lead quite yet, we were able to offer a very basic first step to each of these communities. At the end of this month, a midwife from Arizona is traveling down to provide Safe Birth training to 5 women in each church. While it will be more theory than hands on & entail no practical experience, it is a very important first step in providing related resources. Our hope it that it will allow and encourage the women with a vision for developing their own church-based maternity care programs.  Please pray with us over the next two weeks leading up to it - that God will raise up godly women who are willing meet these needs in their community as His servants and that they will become tangible examples of Christ's love.