January, 2012

Robin Lim
January 30, 2012
Tales from the Field: Sanur
Last night a Sumbanese child arrived in the place we took you to visit in Bali. My Husband Wil got up to drive me to Sanur at 1 am, as a young Sumbanese woman in the slum had given birth to her second baby, on the cement floor, and no one was there to help her. We flew to Sanur, normally a 1 to 1.5 hour trip, but at that hour with no traffic we made it in 22 minutes. We ran the traffic lights, as we were concerned for the mother and baby's condition. There we found 24 year Rani in a pool of her own blood. Baby shivering on a wet rag, on the floor, all of the people around, and there were dozens, behaving like chickens with their heads cut off. The men were smoking.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 25, 2012
The Future For Haiti: Building Back Better
We found many things to feel hopeful about during our visit. For one, the people of Haiti will soon have access to Mirebalais, a stunning 180,000 sq foot, state of the art teaching hospital with 320 beds and 6 operating rooms powered by 100 kilowatts of solar energy. The level of quality that will be attainable by all Haitians will not only address the country's many health challenges, it will also be a symbol to the rest of the world signaling that their lives do matter. As global maternal health advocates, it always comes back to the mothers when we think of the future of a nation. So when a facility like Mirebalais puts mothers and children out in the very front of their facility, the country is sending a significant message—they're saying that women and children are a priority here.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 23, 2012
Effective Service Delivery: Accompaniment
For those of you who have heard of Paul Farmer, you can probably imagine him trudging for miles to visit patients in their homes in rural Haiti or any of the other countries PIH is working in. Paul is famous for making this effort, an effort in which he works to pair people in partnership. And it just wouldn't have been a visit to a PIH site if we hadn't seen this approach in action. One afternoon, we set out for a short (but steep) walk outside of the Canges PIH/ZL campus grounds for our first home visit. Over the back of the hillside of our homebase lay a scattering of small homes. As we made our way down the narrow dirt path we passed a mass of school children and women -- all of whom use the path daily in order to access schools on camp grounds and its adjacent markets.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 23, 2012
Give A Wo(man) A Fish...Or A Farm...Or Both
According to a well-known Chinese proverb, we are told: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” While this expression is arguably used too often within the developmental world and humanitarian aid communities, Zanmi Lasante, a sister organization to Partners in Health, has given this phrase a new meaning; one that will provide post-earthquake Haiti with self-reliant foundations for their future health and survival. PIH has placed an emphasis on fostering a sustainable and self-sufficient system of food production in order to better treat ongoing issues of poor nutrition, as well as to further the progress of economic empowerment.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 19, 2012
Every Mother is a Mother (Chak Manman Se Yon Manman)
We arrived after lunchtime into Cap-Haitien International Airport, leaving behind a rainy cold day in the northeast. From the air, Port-au-Prince resembles many of the neighboring islands in the Caribbean, with clear blue coastal waters. Once on land, you quickly realize Haiti is quite different than the other islands. Traffic was heavy on this national holiday as Haitians marked two years since the earthquake ravaged the country's capital city, Port-au-Prince. The streets and sidewalks were overcrowded with families dressed for memorial services if they could find the space in a church.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 19, 2012
All People Are People (Tout Moun Se Moun)
Erin and I flew down to Haiti late last week to visit our friends at Partners in Health (PIH) and their local affiliate Zanmi Lasante. One week ago today marked the 2nd anniversary of the devastating earthquake that tragically took over 300,000 lives and left one million others displaced. January 12th is now a national day of remembrance, marked by widely held memorials and heavily attended church services honoring those whom did not survive. Having arrived in this near, yet still distant, country for the first time during a period of such significant reflection had only naturally revealed our own feelings of apprehension about how we'd find the people of Haiti in the aftermath of such an event.
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Betsy Freeman
January 17, 2012
Tales From the Field - Part 3
I arrive on the floor in a daze. There is a woman seizing. Two midwives hold her down as the new young OB prepares to suction her. I am instantly awake. “How’s her cervix?” I ask. She holds up two fingers. “Two more grams of mag” she calls out to anyone who has a free hand. No one does, but the mag appears. “It’s twins,” she says.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
January 13, 2012
Thank You for Supporting EMC in the Mozilla Firefox Challenge on Crowdrise
Thank you SO much for supporting us in the Mozilla Firefox Challenge on Crowdrise. With your contributions, we were able to raise $17,062 for Robin Lim's Bumi Sehat Clinic in Bali, Indonesia. Robin and her amazing team can continue building their new clinic to ensure that mothers and newborns receive the quality health care they deserve. Thanks again for continuing to stand by us and say that Every Mother Counts.
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Christy Turlington Burns
January 12, 2012
Maternal Health's 1%
I was invited back to St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital earlier this week, where I delivered both of my children, for a screening of "No Woman, No Cry." Dr. Jacques Moritz, Director, Gynecology Division, Department of OB/GYN there, hosted the event, who just also happens to be the OB who backed my midwife Elizabeth Boyce, when I delivered my daughter Grace back in 2003, served as my host for a fascinating conversation that followed about maternal mortality right here at home- many times citing the Amnesty International's Deadly Delivery report, which came out in 2010, just a month before NO WOMAN, NO CRY premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In his presentation Dr. Moritz not only shared some shocking statistics with his colleagues about our national statistics, but also about NYC in particular.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
January 5, 2012
The Conscious Perspective: Women Who Inspire Series, Day 4 ~ An Exclusive Q&A with Christy Turlington Burns
Christy Turlington Burns has been an inspiration to me for some time. When I first began brainstorming The Conscious Perspective, it was my hope to feature her advocacy and mobilization organization Every Mother Counts. Perhaps one day, I thought to myself, I would even have the opportunity to interview her about the work she was doing. This past September I tuned in to the Mashable Social Good Summit where I learned even more about what EMC truly represents. In the interview Christy revealed the inspiration behind her advocacy for global maternal health - a potentially life-threatening complication upon delivering her daughter eight years ago. She began working with CAREand (RED) which led her to her directorial debut, No Woman, No Cry – a film that shares the stories of four women in different areas of the globe, bringing forth a deeper sense of compassion for the cause.
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