A story about the other side of Sumatra.
That's really sad news ID.
Heavy, I know its something Surfaid is addressing, when they started their Mother & Child programme 3 years ago. The statistic is pretty horrifying, one Mother dies every 3 hours in childbirth in Indo. Here's the link if anyone interested.
Thats sad to hear mate. The western world doesn't know how good they've got it..
The saddest irony is the message printed across the belly on her dress.
Good story. I am sure you helped them in your own way.
Thanks for sharing ID, very sad.
mick-free wrote:Heavy, I know its something Surfaid is addressing, when they started their Mother & Child programme 3 years ago. The statistic is pretty horrifying, one Mother dies every 3 hours in childbirth in Indo. Here's the link if anyone interested.
Thats pretty crazy statistic, this is the second Indo women I've know that died from childbirth, the other was a younger women that was actually working at a Mentawai surf resort.
Especially when a majority could be saved with basic medical intervention. We are very lucky in our part of the world. I could find out from Surfaid more about the interventions if you like ID, let me know, Dr Dave's over for the surfaid cup in a few weeks and is staying with me in Sydney.
Did a mission to one of the most remote areas of Sumatra a few months back, only option to stay anywhere was with a local family in a village just down from a wave, the kepala desa (village chief) was out of the area, so we stayed with a youngish family consisting of father, mother and two kids (about 6 and 8), was an extremely poor village and the house was just a small wooden hut with a palm thatched roof, empty except for a few plastic chairs that we moved aside at night so we could roll out a pandanus mat to sleep on and a few tattered photos on the wall displayed with pride.
Ive stayed in a few remote Indo villages before, but this one was perhaps the poorest looking and the vibe in this village was a little bit weird and even the kids were more curious almost scared rather than typical Indo kid no fear friendly, i guess partly because we were told the last westerner to stay in the village was over a year ago, so i guess the only other westerners they see is charter boats and only see westerners from a distance playing in the waves on the offshore reef.
Anyway despite the weird vibe out of everyone we met there, the person that really stood out was the Ibu of the house we stayed at, she fully did her best to look after us and despite only having the little ingredients we brought with us cooked up some basic but great Indo food, she also had that honest heart feel about her almost a glow, she was the one person to me that really stood out, she was also a few months pregnant which maybe explains the glow.
Anyway yesterday a good Indonesian friend bumped into her husband at the nearest hospital about 250km away or two days traveling by boat-ferry-car, and he was not in the best shape and had some bad news.
Sadly the Ibu had died at childbirth the day before.
Anyway im not sure what the point of my story is, i guess it just hit home to me how hard life can be out of the comfort of the western bubble we live in and how lucky we are, just thinking about how the husband is going to get on with his life and how the two young kids are going to get on without a mother.
PS. I forgot to ask if the baby survived, i was more in shock she had died from childbirth as its not really something that you think happens to people you know.