A Day With the Aeta Midwives

Ten years ago, a group of 15 Aeta traditional midwives joined us at Shiphrah to learn new skills and birthing knowledge. In March of 2012, the midwives Lornie and Dina, along with intern Staci, mission driver Jorge and I (Jeri) went up to Tarlac province to meet with 21 new Aeta midwives who want to follow their forerunners to learn more about their call to midwife their people.

They are a unique people. Driven from their homeland by the Pinatubo volcanic explosion, they are now struggling to change from their hunter-gather lifestyle to that of the farmer. They are Negrito. No one really knows where they have come from. Their history is lost in the dim mists of time.

Our challenges are significant. They are, for the most part, non-literate. They speak very little Tagalog, their language being either Aeta or Ka-pampangan, which none of our midwives speak. We loved working with the group ten years ago and are very, very honored and excited about working together with this “second generation” of Aeta traditional birth attendants. 

Pictures are on the way!!!!!!!!!!

WE BOUGHT THE BIRTHING HOME!

The landowner informed us that he was determined to sell the birthing home property. He wanted us to have the first option to buy. 

This ministry belongs to the Lord, and so, in obedience to his call 20 years ago to “do” the Gospel through the ministry of midwifery to impoverished women and their families, we are pressing forward.

We have rented the present birthing home for 17 years and are deeply embedded in the community. We have served not only as a place of welcome and dignity to thousands of birthing moms, and their families over the years, but also as a community gathering place. It  also has been used as a place of refuge, relief, and recovery from storm’s devastation. We have seen births by the thousands, as well as hosted weddings, baptisms, and birthdays in the Birthing Home facility. The Learning Area hosts almost 200 women every week for Childbirth, Women’s Health, and Newborn Care education.  It also sees the annual Children’s  Christmas Party and is the site of forums and workshops.

The price for 1,024 sq. meters (approx. 3,100 sq. feet) which includes the recently re-roofed Birthing Home, Learning Area, and Reproductive Health Care facility, Total costs was about $75,000.

We achieved that goal with allot of help of very good people.
One of the things we did this past year was a Fundraiser !! On Jan. 26th 2012 Help International Ministries ended the evening with $17,000!! We were absolutely incredible! As a result of that exquisite evening, we now think in terms of FUNRAISING!!! 
Check out the links to get a better "feel" of that amazing evening.
http://youtu.be/_x2RHSK8Jkw

http://youtu.be/4bpvE_onKPs

To own the property allows us to develop it as we have wanted to do for so long. 

The building of the new support wall at Shiphrah Birthing Home has just been finished in the past few weeks.  We also are currently working on refreshing the learning area as well as creating a beautiful play ground for all the children of our area. There has not been a good and safe place for the community's children to play in. Building a new Septic tank for the Birthing Home is also in our near future plans.

Our dreams are big for this new purchase as we hope to provide lodging facilities for students, both those with families as well as single's. We also would like to add another birthing room, and badly needed renovation on the midwives quarters.

Please join us through prayer, and help all of our dreams for this wonderful place to come true.  

We do ask for your on-going commitment to support the daily operations of both Shiphrah Birthing Home and The Little Children's Home. Your support through prayer and donations make it possible for hundreds upon hundreds of women, children, and families to feel in a tangible way, the powerful love of God. For those who have not yet joined the HELP team, come aboard. It’s a wonderful life!

Please note that we have recently added an online donation capacity (not tax deductible for Americans, though).

The donation button is on our website:

http://www.helpintl.org/

On October 2011, we announced with much pleasure that our Shiphrah Birthing Home midwives, are now officially recognized as preceptors by both the National College of Midwifery (NCM), and the National Association of Registered Midwives (NARM) in the U.S. In addition, Shiphrah Birthing Home has been recognized by NARM as one of their Out-of-Country sites for offering both practicum and academic training to midwives. This means that any student who wishes to become a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) can come to Shiphrah, for all of their midwifery educational needs. They also can get credit for their work, and be qualified to sit for the NARM exam, the official licensing exam in the U.S. What an honor for our midwives and recognition of their very hard, dedicated work throughout the years. To God be the Glory! We were very excited! 

Now as of December 2012, we have 4 spots available for students, and they are frequently filled :) Our Students get a meaningful and intense learning experience here. 

With the renewal of this blog, we also started promoting and spreading the word to future students through Facebook. Everyone is invited to join our group below!(https://www.facebook.com/groups/387043088043777/)

If you know of any midwifery students that are looking for a place to learn the work of their dreams, please head them our way!!

For whoever is interested in reading a little bit more about students experiences at Shiphrah, this would be a good one to start with. Sky Connelly, left Shiphrha 10 days ago going back to the US after a 2 month interning here. Please take a look at what she wrote on her blog yesterday. If I may say -  a highly recommended read!

( http://manamidwifery.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/keep-on-rockin-in-the-free-world/)

  

New times are coming, Christmas and the exciting new year are so close :-) with that spirit we are trying this days to refresh our blog and bring it back to life!!
In the next few days I will be updating and sharing with you the overview of HELP International's actions in the past 16 months...

Here we go!!!!

GLOBAL Consultation 2011!
Deborah, our Social Worker, Joy, and Sara along with 260 some people gathered from around the world and the Philippines in Makati City over August 17, 18 and 19 to pursue the well-being of Filipino children who have been placed in the care of governmental and non-governmental agencies throughout the Philippines. Following the precept that all children deserve a family of their own, every two years the participants at Global explore how best to achieve this goal through international adoption in a way that protects the children and honors their Filipino heritage. The main topic this year was the problem of child trafficking through international adoption.

When most people here the term “child trafficking,” illegal adoption isn’t what enters their mind. Many find it difficult to reconcile such a negative term with what seems to be a good thing – a family. But anytime any part of the process has happened illegally, even when people have acted with good intentions the best interests of the child have not been served.