By Vicki A. Penwell | Executive Director, Mercy In Action
Another room is going up this month on the Cumpio Clinic, and not a minute too soon! We are bursting at the seams with parents who are eager for the health teachings and child survival educational programs we offer. It is like life water to the survivors of the disaster. And we just want to say a heartfelt Thank You to our many wonderful donors who give to our disaster recovery work through Global Giving.
Together we are helping people rebuild their lives after the worst storm to make landfall on the planet last November 2013. It is true that while the news showed all the buildings that were destroyed, the worse crisis was the human face of the tragedy; the loss of life, the deep inconsolable grief, the injuries and disease among the survivors, and the multitude of homeless people. With clinics and hospitals also damaged and destroyed, there was no safe place for the babies to be born.
And that is where Mercy In Action came in. Responding to the immediate disaster, we took a team and flew in soon after the airport was repaired enough to re-open, and we set up tents to deliver babies at ground zero. But of course this was a temporary band aide on a human disaster of enormous proportions. We knew we had to help rebuild, and you helped us do that. By 6 months after the disaster, we had begun rebuilding one birth center and clinic that had been smashed into rubble. By 9 months after the disaster, I was privileged to attend the grand opening, and babies started having a safe, clean, equipped place to be born again. And by two years after the disaster, we raised enough money to rebuild a home for the midwife Nerissa and her family.
In this new birth center, Cumpio Clinic, (named after the original clinic that was destroyed) all maternity care is offered FREE OF CHARGE, and they teach childbirth and parenting classes, cramming dozens of women and babies into the clinic waiting room. This is especially difficult on the clinic staff because they are having babies born day and night, and prenatal check ups coming in and out, all the while trying to carry on good parent education.
Mercy In Action, with a partial grant from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, is committed to building on to the existing clinic and expanding their ability to teach public health as a free service to the community.
Anna at Center for Disaster Philanthropy just sent us this letter, and I quote her: "It makes me ever so happy to start my Monday by sending you this note. Attached please find an agreement letter for $4,750 to go towards the completion of the multi-purpose room at Cumpio Clinic. I look forward to hearing about the continuation of yours and Nerissa’s wonderful work there!"
Please consider helping us with the rest we will need to put up this Multipurpose hall for health education (approximately $3,000 more.) Prevention of problems in pregnancy and prevention of childhood illnesses is one of the most important things we can be involved in at this stage of the disaster recovery.
And if you have suggestions for teaching aides or topics to teach to new mothers, or have any questions about our current disaster recovery phase, please feel free to contact me at info@mercyinaction.com.
Bless you, thank you, keep praying for the recovery...it is a long long road back from Typhoon Haiyan.
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