China
HealthTibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center
Tibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center
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Tibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center
Land has been broken in the construction of the first Women’s Health, Birth Center and Training Facility. Land was donated and permits secured in 2005; the design of the facility was approved this year by local and provincial authorities and building is underway!! Tibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center will be a large Tibetan style home built around a center courtyard with room for families to stay pre and post delivery in addition to exam rooms, pharmacy, offices.
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Earth Moving Equipment
The center will be modeled after free-standing birth centers common throughout the US and will provide a high standard for cleanliness and comfort that is currently unavailable in this region. Fees will be based on a sliding scale, but no woman or family will be turned away due to lack of resources. The center will not only be a place for safe delivery, but also a training facility for community midwives and a place of support for rural Tibetan women. This health and educational facility will be the first center of its kind in all of Tibet, operated by and for Tibetan people, in their language!
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Building the birth center's outer wall
The frame and building infrastructure including outer walls and foundation of the building are underway and we expect to complete the project by the end of 2007.
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Dr. Tseringy Kyi mixing cement
With Tibetan Healing Fund’s guidance and the very experienced Dr. Tsering Kyi, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, the center will provide an economically accessible facility for women and children’s health services and education including pre and postnatal care, delivery, child care and nutrition. The center will integrate Tibetan medical theory, culture and traditions with Western interventions to provide locally acceptable, culturally suitable and medically sound approaches to healthcare.
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Building the strong foundation for the birth cente
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Birth Center Land
Birth Center land before construction.
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Tibetan Mother and Child
While traveling in Amdo, women would stop me on the street and ask that I look at their child to see if the child was healthy. My heart broke, as I wanted so much to help them but felt so helpless at that moment. I knew that many of the children would not make it to 5 years because of diarrhea, or respiratory infections or would not properly grow and develop because of lack of basic health care and malnutrition.
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Tibetan Child
Many Tibetan children are not able to complete the six-year elementary school because of poverty and poor quality of education. While traveling throughout the villages and meeting children and teachers you realize the desperate attempt that is being made to save a culture and that education is fundamental to the survival of Tibetan people. By providing bilingual teacher training, Tibetan Heritage Primer book, school scholarships, Tibetan Healing Fund is helping this effort in a significant wa
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Tibetan Midwife and Child
"Little Kunchok" was named after Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen, the founder of Tibetan Healing Fund. The community midwife was so proud of him and told me how she helped in the delivery. I too was so proud of her and in awe of the beautiful healthy boy. At that moment I realized how many people both in Tibet and the US actually assisted in the delivery of this healthy boy, through our actions, whether it was donated money, time, knowledge or support.
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Maternal and Child Health Education Handbooks
In 2004 and 2006 Tibetan Healing Fund hosted landmark gatherings of women’s health professionals from across all the Tibetan Regions of P.R. China to discuss the many problems, solutions and the future of women and children’s health in rural Tibet. One of the results was the creation of a series of four complementary textbooks: Tibetan Maternal and Family Health System theoretical text, Tibetan Midwifery practical text and a pictorial text, and a Community Midwife Training Manual.
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