Meet Yai, a Mom who used our Clean Birth Kits
Yai, a mom of 4, lost a baby last year. From infection. She lives in Tahoy District in Laos, where now she has access to Clean Birth Kits.
“In the past, my newborn and I got an infection. The baby was not health for two months. Then she died. After using a birth kit for this baby, we are safe and did not get an infection. The cord was clean and dried well. Before I used bamboo to cut the cord and string I found in the house. That’s why my child got an infection. When I took him to see the doctor, he couldn’t help. It was too late.”
We are giving Yai, the volunteers who help her and the nurse in her area the resources they need to make birth infection-free.
For $5 Yai had a safe birth. $5 Saves 2 Lives.
Plans for Nurses Meeting: December 20th
On December 20th we will gather all of the nurses we have trained to our partner’s HQ in Salavan.
Meeting Objectives:
- Improve data collection by nurses.
- Distribute needed # of kits/stipend to each nurse.
Main challenge to address:
Before we can give the birth kits to the Village Volunteers (which is our eventual goal) we need to improve the nurses tracking birth kits usage.
We are so thrilled that Natalie Gracia, a MD student from Sydney Australia will be working together with Dr. Nong and Noy to ensure that we put in place even clearer procedures for data tracking.
First CleanBirth Village Volunteers Trained!
We 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!
The 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:
- Ms. Tha, woman’s union volunteer from SanaengVillage
- Ms. Vae, traditional midwife from SanaengVillage
- Ms. Koab, woman’s union volunteer from PhorbeiyVillage
- Ms. Koun, traditional midwife from PhorbeiyVillage
- Ms. Loiy, woman’s union volunteer from PachouchernVillage
- Ms Ms. Orn, midwife from Pachouchern Village
- Ms. Lang, woman’s union volunteer from ChotaiVillage. Orn, traditional midwife from PachouchernVillage
- Ms. Kamouan, traditional midwife from ChotaiVillage
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.
We 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!
Lao Staff Send More Data and Pictures
Yeah! Pictures from the villages where our kits are being distributed. And data too!
Three staffers of our Lao partner organization, Our Village Association, are tasked with assisting in the distribution of kits, tracking of data, and training of CleanBirth Volunteers.
Ms. Noi coordinates all of our efforts and communicates with CleanBirth.org directly. Mr Phomma works with nurses and villagers in Saravan District and Lao-ngarm District; Mr Haleuy does the same in Tahoy District.
Mr. Haleuy took these great pictures of life in this village.
The nurses in each of our 14 clinics are tasked with texting the number of Clean Birth Kits they have distributed each month.
Ms. Noi has reported that so far in September we have heard from 7 clinics about the number of kits that they distributed in August.
– Naborn Clinic: gave 21
– Kokbok Clinic: gave 16
– Tahouak Clinic: gave 6
– Kuaset Clinic: gave 7
– Pachoudorn Clinic: gave 2
– Daxia Clinic: gave 7
– Thoumleethong Clinic: gave 1
Ms. Noi will be calling the other 7 nurses to get their data.
Last month 4 clinics were cut off communication-wise by rain, but all nurses will need to show their data in December to recieve more kits and their stipend.
Thanks to the 3 OVA staffers we can see that data is being collected and the kits are being used!