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CleanBirth.org Volunteers: Meet Natalie

Slide1Natalie is making a huge difference to CleanBirth.org and women in Salavan Province, Laos.

 

She is an Australian psychologist who recently completed her first year as a medical student in Sydney Australia.  She has extensive experience volunteering in Peru and Chile.

 

Natalie found CleanBirth.org on the internet and approached me to get involved.  Here’s more about her motivation to get involved in her own words:

 

As part of my medical degree I am required to complete a social justice elective in an area of my choosing. My parents have been living and working in Vientiane for the past year and for this reason Laos has very much been on my radar.  Through my interest in obstetrics in developing countries and being familiar with an Australia NGO Send Hope Not Flowers, CleanBirth.org caught my eye as an earnest and extremely valuable venture where I could potentially lend a hand.

From December 19-23, Natalie will be working closely with Dr. Nong and Noy, OVA staffer/CleanBirth.org’s part-time project manager on the ground.

 

They will distribute kits and review nurses’ data on Dec 20th and train the nurses on our new data tracking tool for Village Volunteers.

 

On Dec 21st they will coordinate the training of another 12 Village Volunteers in a Salavan District clinic.  The nurses will teach the Village Volunteers not only to spread information about safe birth but also how to distribute and track the AYZH Clean Birth Kits.

 

We are so grateful to Natalie who is paying her own way and volunteering her time!

Three Weeks until Nurses and Volunteers Training in Salavan

IMG_7526On December 20th, CleanBirth.org and our partner OVA will meet with the 16 nurses we have trained to date. We will check data, give a 6 month supply of birth kits and conduct a mini-training on educating Village Volunteers.

On December 21st, our 2nd Village Volunteers training will take place at Buengkharm Clinic: 3 nurses will train 11 Volunteers.

Not only will these Village Volunteers return home with knowledge about how to make birth safer, they will bring AYZH Clean Birth Kits to pregnant women in their village.

With the generous help of Carol Perks of Save the Children in northern Laos, we have developed a picture tool to track the use of the kits.  No reading required!

TBARecordOnce we see that the Volunteers can distribute and track the kits, we will be able to scale up the Village Volunteer program.  Our goal: to get kits and education into every village in Salavan Province to make birth safer.

 

 

 

 

CleanBirth Listed in Numerous Holiday Guides!

largecard1So grateful to Multicultural Kids Blogs, Dancing Through Pregnancy, World Moms Blog and Michaela Evanow for including us on their lists of organizations to support this holiday season.

We are so honored to be included with heavy-hitting maternal health institutions like: Oxfam, Care, Unicef, Jhpiego, World Vision, Shanti Uganda, etc…

It is so wonderful to have more people getting the word out about our cards this season! Especially, when so little can do so much!

Please consider adding a $3 gift tag to your gift or giving a $10 full-sized card to someone who already has everything.  You will be saving lives in Laos.

 

 

First CleanBirth Village Volunteers Trained!

IMG_7526We just received the most exciting email. What was an idea in July has become a reality in October.  Our partner in Laos, Our Village Association, with a local clinic in Ta-oiy Province have executed the first CleanBirth Volunteers Training!

IMG_7538The training “Making Birth Safe” was led by a local nurse, Ms. Chanpheng at Pachoudone Clinic, Ta-oiy District, SaravanProvince.  The workshop was under the chairmanship of Mr. Boundala, the head of Pachoudone Clinic.

There were 8 participants from 4 villages, unfortunately 7 others from three additional villages were kept away by heavy rains.  The participants were:

  1. Ms. Tha, woman’s union volunteer from SanaengVillage
  2. Ms. Vae, traditional midwife from SanaengVillage
  3. Ms. Koab, woman’s union volunteer from PhorbeiyVillage
  4. Ms. Koun, traditional midwife from PhorbeiyVillage
  5. Ms. Loiy, woman’s union volunteer from PachouchernVillage
  6. Ms Ms. Orn, midwife from Pachouchern Village
  7.  Ms. Lang, woman’s union volunteer from ChotaiVillage. Orn, traditional midwife from PachouchernVillage
  8. Ms. Kamouan, traditional midwife from ChotaiVillage

IMG_7550

The contents in the workshop included:

1. How to use the AYZH Clean Birth Kits

2. How to encourage breastfeeding

3. Warning signs in pregnancy and labor

Noi, the OVA employee tasked with coordinating CleanBirth.org’s activities on the ground, gave these details about the training:

The training room was cramped and we could not hold the training outside due to the heavy rain but the participants were interested in the topics.

The trainer used dialect language (Ta-oiy language) on the training made them clearly understand the lessons.

IMG_7554We could not be more thrilled that this training went so well, that it was led exclusively by local staff and monitored by Noi.  Locals helping each other make birth safe!

This is a great start to our CleanBirth.org Village Volunteer Training!

Global Handwashing Day!

Clean Hands Save LivesOne of CleanBirth.org’s main objectives is to prevent infection. Our AYZH Clean Birth Kits give moms everything they need for a hygienic birth.

While handwashing before delivery may seem so obvious, it is has not been the historical practice.

We have Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor, to thank for changing that. In 1847, Semmelweis proved statistically that the incidence of puerperal fever, aka childbed fever, could be drastically reduced by enforcing hand washing standards for OB doctors and nurses.

Thanks Dr. Semmelweis!  No go wash your hands!

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