NOTE: I have no idea why the text color is weird. :( Sorry!I've had folks ask me how the clinic manages to run on bare bone finances. After all, ministry partners donate finances to pay the salary of 4 filipina midwives, utilities, basic medical supplies, and not much else. Since those the clinic serves usually live in slums and shanty shacks, their finances are bare bones, if not nil. Here's the way it works:
Patients are asked to donate about $5 for all their perinatal care, including pre-natal check-ups, health education, hematocrit testing, labor & delivery, and post-natal check-ups. When they go into labor they are asked to bring the following supplies:
- 2 towels (one to lay on as they deliver and 1 to clean baby)
- 1 baby blanket newborn outfit (onesie, booties, mittens, cap)
- newborn diaper
- adult diaper (cheaper than a maternity pad)
- soap (to wash baby)
- hot water (to wash baby)
- change of clothes for mom
- cotton balls & rubbing alcohol (if an episiotomy needs to be stitched and to clean injection site for Vit K shot for baby)
- snacks (for family after baby is born)
Sometimes moms show up unprepared and the clinic seldom has extra supplies on hand. When we're out of these extras, we've used the mom's going home shirt to catch the baby with. Not the most ideal of circumstances. And sometimes moms cannot afford the $5 donation, but we still deliver the same care to them as we would to someone who paid the full amount.
We love it when people can help out with these basic supplies so that we can give them to the neediest. Do you have gently used baby clothes? Or perhaps you and your church or small group would like to put together layette sets! You can put together some baby towels, blankets, clothes, and then including $1 per set for the soap, rubbing alcohol, cotton, baby diaper, and adult diaper, which we can purchase in bulk for a very good price in the Philippines.
It's usually between $50-60 to ship a large box of these items right from your door to our door. If you are interested in helping out in this way, let me know and I'll be happy to send you the info.
Hi Pami,
ReplyDeletePlease email to me any other details you desire & I'll share them with our church's craft team, & perhaps others, including my prayer team. Maybe we can gather some here & Doug Nichols can ship out some supplies to the clinic.
I love your newer blog entry about the little & impoverished church helping you very significantly with your out-going expenses. I'll share it with our nurse wanna be, Ruthann, who has a nurse co-worker staying with her (us) a few days before moving to Tennessee with her parents. God bless you, your parents & siblings! We are thrilled with your service to God & proclaiming of Him!
In Jesus,
Bill (Carol & Brian) Flansburg/ACTION USA