A Filipino-American midwife — Robin Lim — has made it to the Top 10 of this year’s "CNN Heroes" for providing free maternal healthcare to thousands of poor women in Indonesia.
According to
CNN, Lim, whose mother is a Filipino-Chinese, put up “birthing sanctuaries" for Indonesians in need of maternal and general health care. In her “Meet the Hero"
interview, Lim said it is common in Indonesia to hold babies in the hospital until the bills have been paid. Lim, 54, said mothers should only worry about delivering their babies safely and not about how they should pay the hospital where they gave birth. With average families in Indonesia earning only $8 a day, many cannot afford birthing services in hospitals, which can cost between $70 and $700. Thus, the country holds high maternal and infant mortality rates. Lim, along with nine other “ordinary" citizens who have made differences in their communities, will all receive a $50, 000 grant and will be honored at an “All-Star Tribute" on December 11. They are vying for online votes to become the fifth CNN Hero of the Year, which comes with an additional $250, 000. Voting is open until Dec. 7. In 2009, Filipino
Efren Peñaflorida was named CNN Hero of the Year for his Kariton classroom project, which brought the classrooms to children in the streets.
‘Calling’ Known in the area by the local term “Ibu" or mother, Lim began helping pregnant Indonesian women and their babies in 1994, when she and her brood of eight were still settling into the village of Nyuh Kuning near Bali. The author and midwife easily made a home in the Asian country, having been raised in the Philippines while her father was stationed in Indonesia with the US military. “When two baby owls fell out of a coconut tree and into my care, the villagers took it as an omen that I should become their new midwife,"
Lim told the online magazine, STEPS. While it was unexpected, Lim— who first assisted local midwives in home-based childbirths— decided to return to the US to get a professional certification. She told STEPS that she took the turn of events as a “calling" to follow in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, Vicenta Munar Lim, who served as “healer and baby catcher for her people" in Baguio, even after the second World War. Lim said she owes her values from her “Nanang" Vicenta and her Filipino-Chinese mother, who both taught her the gift of kindness to self and to others. “My grandmother taught me to be a peaceful warrior. She gave me permission at a very young age to always follow my heart. That’s been my life’s greatest gift," she said.
‘With respect and kindness’ With the Balinese community and their friends rallying behind them, Lim and her husband put up the first clinic of
Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Health Mother Earth Foundation) in 2003. The tsunami tragedy a year later led to the establishment of a smaller clinic in Aceh. These “birthing sanctuaries"—which also offers general medical services—work on a 24-hour basis and has collectively assisted in 5, 000 births. Bumi Sehat has earned its share of foreigners and Indonesian celebrities—who all donate for the foundation— but Lim told CNN that about 80 percent of patients who come in express their gratitude with “a few mangoes." “Rock star or prostitute, everyone gets treated [like a] VIP at Bumi Sehat... with kindness and respect," she said.
‘Reinvent their lives’ Before moving to Bali, Lim was a respected author with two books on maternal matters and a novel titled “Butterfly People." She lived in Hawaii with her husband and their eight children. However, Lim was “just crushed" by the deaths of three special women in her life, including her sister, who succumbed to a complication that also killed the baby she was carrying. “But I decided not to get angry. I decided to become part of the solution. If I could help even one family prevent the loss of a mother or a child, I would do that. I would dedicate might life to it," she told CNN. Lim and her husband sold their house and the whole family trooped to Bali to “reinvent their lives."
- with Gayna Kumar, VVP, GMA News 
GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
