Today, 1-12-11, marks the one year anniversary of the founding of our beautiful birth clinic in Haiti which conisides with the devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti killing thousands, destroying millions of homes and displacing many people to tent cities where they still reside. It left thousands of women in Haiti with no safe place to birth and few skilled birth attendants to assist. Cholera runs rampid throughout the country taking more lives and making survival more difficult for women and children. MHI team continues to assist births at the Jacmel clinic and sends love and support to the Haitian people today as they reflect, mourn and remember their lossed loved ones and strive to move forward and build a life for themselves out of this devastation.
"While you are looking at the horrors still ongoing in Haiti, please look at the miracles of MOTHER HEALTH INTERNATIONAL in Jacmel, Haiti. They are using traditional Midwifery Model of Care to provide excellent, dignified outcomes for pregnancy, births, breastfeeding, and helping women with the traumas of rape and STDs. This is done on a very low budget, including education and sanitation. MHI will reduce the mortality rate of
moms and babies, "
Jade McGaff, ObGyn,
moms and babies, "
Jade McGaff, ObGyn,
MHI Medical Advisory Board.
Jacmel, Haiti, January 12th, 2011
"We all are created to live in an environment that we have to work hard to stay alive, we all are aware that we are HUMAN but, we all are not conscious about what we must do to protect where we live. HAITI is an obvious case where people say every single day " GOD knows all ". They forgot that they can think for themselves. When you think for yourself, then you can understand and make decisions. Then you decide you can choose not to be a slave but to be free and responsible for what you do. People forgot the fact that if you don't think for yourself, you will lose your ability to choose and you can create your own misfortune.
We have have had a lot of bad disasters in Haiti but January 12th was the worst day that Haitian people ever knew. I don't believe in tears after death, I don't believe in taking time to remember what has happened when you had the ability to prevent that thing from occurring in the first place. I do believe in action. I do believe in what you can do now to have a different future. May 21, 2010 was my first day in MHI. After the earthquake, every single day I was trying to find work. A lot of work had been created by NGO's coming from all over the world, spending a lot of money. When I found MHI, I didn't see this work as an opportunity to make money, I worked for $10 US a day while other NGO's would pay up to $100 US a day.
What motivated me to work for MHI was that I could, help women to know who they are, how they can get pregnant, and give birth naturally in love and peace with the responsibility to change their life and maybe the world.
I can tell you as a Haitian woman, MHI birth center is like a miracle in my region Jacmel for the women. Do you want to know why? I want to sum it up in one sentence: MHI creates a space for women to feel safe, to learn how to take care of themselves to have a healthy birth and a healthy baby, understand that life can be better if you take your responsibility despite your reality and situation. The women that come here to our clinic, understand and show us that they are really strong women.
Please, help MHI, by donating whatever you can to MHI. It can make a difference. Your donation can help Haiti not to ever have a day like January 12 again. By doing this amazing work for families in Jacmel, we are hoping that it will carry a spark to other parts of the country.
We want it to create a better life for women in Haiti and I believe it starts with caring for women during pregnancy and birth. Women can heal the planet but we should start by healing birth. No matter who you believe, you must take your responsibility. Help us teach women how to do that! Thank you." From Ninotte Lubin, MHI Administrator and Student Midwife
Over 440 babies have been born at the MHI birth clinic to date. The birth clinic which has employeed all women, with the exception of our security guards, continues to grow and thrive as we train Haitian student midwives the tradition of midwifery. These women are great leaders in their community and work hard every day to ensure the success and survival of the clinic.
We need your help. We must raise $9,000 to pay our yearly rent by March 1, 2011 and money for the monthly salaries. Please donate today to support this birth clinic and the Haitian staff.
Mother Health International seeks volunteer midwives and ob/gyns for the 2011 calendar year. The MHI birth clinic is now a NARM (North American Registry of Midwives) approved birth clinic and we have begun our student apprentice program which will allow 2 to 3 student a month to volunteer in our clinic while finishing their certification process.
In gratitude for your support,
Ninotte Lubin, MHI Administrator, Student Midwife
Clare Loprinzi, CPM, MHI President
Heather L. Maurer, MHI Co-Founder, Executive Director
Jade McGraff, OBGyn, MHI Medical Advisory Board
"The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all." Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, leader of Burma's democracy movement
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