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Pinoy Abroad
Fil-Am midwife named 'CNN Hero of the Year’
UPDATED 12:30 p.m. - International news network CNN on Monday named Robin Lim, a Filipino-American midwife in Indonesia, as its second Hero of the Year who is of Filipino descent.
The 54-year-old Lim, whose mother is Filipino-Chinese, built “birthing sanctuaries” for Indonesians who need maternal and general health care.
In 2009, another Filipino – Efren Peñaflorida – became CNN Hero of the Year for his Kariton classroom project that aims to educate street children.
Filipinos immediately welcomed Lim’s victory through social media sites like Twitter
Robin Lim. Photo from her Facebook page.
CNN chose Lim from a short list of 10 CNN Heroes, each of whom got a cash prize of $50,000. For winning as Hero of the Year, Lim received an additional $250,000 grant for her nonprofit Bumi Sehat Foundation.
Bills and mothers’ worries
Lim, who cried when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced her victory, delivered a short speech that tackled maternal care.
“Today on our earth, 981 mothers in the prime of their life will die, and tomorrow again, and yesterday. I am asking you to help change that,” said Lim, who was teary-eyed while delivering her speech in a star-studded ceremony at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
“The very best way that I know is to support your midwifery and mother care so that the midwifes can help lower the risks of motherhood, and we can save lives together – mothers and babies,” she said.
In a previous “Meet the Hero” interview on CNN, Lim said giving birth in hospitals is costly in Indonesia, with average Indonesian families earning only $8 a day.
Hospital birthing services in Indonesia can range from $70 to $700, Lim said. She said bills should the the least of a mother’s worries.
“You worry, ‘Will I be able to deliver this baby safely into the world?’ But you shouldn’t have to worry, ‘How will I pay for it,’” said Lim.
PHL maternal deaths
In the Philippines, where Lim was raised, maternal mortality rates remain high despite a report from a pro-life American news agency that the number of maternal deaths in the country has declined, according to Reproductive Health (RH) bill advocate Rep. Janette Garin.
“I agree it is declining, the extent of which is dependent on the variance of the method being used. However, it is also clear that mothers are still dying. Nobody should die giving life,” Garin said.
Maternal deaths put a heavier toll on affected families’ daughters, said a GMA News Online special report.
The RH bill, which is still being debated in Congress, aims to ensure maternal health through “effective reproductive health care,” which includes the use of artificial contraceptives.
The Catholic Church, however, has opposed the RH bill for supposedly endangering rather than protecting womens’ lives.
The Church accepts only natural methods of family planning. - VVP, GMA News
