マウイママコミュの百万人のママたちへ、バリ助産院より

＜私の日記にも載せたのですが、マウイママにも声をかけたく、こちらにも載せますのでよろしくお願い致します＞

世界平和は穏やかな出産から、

これを願う一人として、皆さんにメッセージです。

３日ほど前にthe business of being bornというドキュメンタリー映画を見ました。リッキー・レイクというトークショーホストが第一子を病院で、第二子をホームバース（水中出産）でして、その違いに驚き、自然なお産の素晴らしさを実感したことから、この映画を作りはじめました。アメリカでは３人に１人が帝王切開で生まれるそうです。そのうち二人に一人になる勢いだとか。
必要に迫られてではなく、病院の都合で、ということがほとんどだそうです。

私自身、二人目をホームバースで水中出産を選び、その満足感は言葉にあらわせないものだったので、伝えているのですが、この映画は非常にパワフルでした。その翌日、この映画のことを教えてくれた、親友の助産婦ティナが家に寄ってくれました。明日は妊婦さんのマッサージを学校で教えるのよ、というので、日本から来ている助産婦さんに教えてあげました。
日本では妊婦さんの体にさわってはいけないそうで、マッサージは御法度だとか。でもクラスを見て来た彼女はとてもよかったと言ってくれました。

バリへ７月に行く予定をしているうちに、Ubudで助産院をきりもりしている
以前マウイに住んでいたロビンのことを思い浮かべていました。何か必要としている物資があるか、昨日彼女にメールを送ったところでした。

そしたら、今日、バーモントのキャサリンという人から電話があり、ロビンの
クリニックの資金集めをしているということでした。
話を聞くと、今のクリニックが満杯状態で手狭になってきており、新しい場所に広いクリニックを作る必要があるとのことです。ひと月に８０人以上の赤ちゃんを取り上げているそうで、ベッドも足りない日があるそう。
バリ人やバリに住む人たちに安心して出産できる場所と教育をしたいと彼女がここをはじめたのが１９９４年頃です。彼女の根性と情熱はただものではありません。いくつもの障害を乗り越えて今にいたっています。私もその頃バリに住んでいたので、事情をよく知っています。
こちらが彼女の組織のホームページです。
http://www.BumiSehatBali.org/

キャサリンはロビンからの緊急を要するメールを受け取りました。
すぐにでも資金が必要です。百万ドルを集めてください！という内容で、
どうしていいかわからず、とまどったそうです。助けたいけども、素人の自分がどうやってそんな大金を集められるのだろうか。。。と。

ある晩、思いついたのが、世界中の百万人のママたちが１ドルづつ募金してくれたら集まるのだ！というアイディアだったそうです。
そこからこのメッセージを送り続けているそうです。
封筒に＄１をいれて送ってくれてもいいし、サイトからクレジットカードや
ペイパルを使って献金してもらってもいいそうです。
詳しくはこのホームページのdonateに入ってください。

http://www.amillionmothers.com/

彼女は９月１日までに目標額を達成して、バリまで届けたいそうです。
今日、私に連絡があったのは、日本の皆さんにもメッセージを届けてほしいからということもありました。日本も妊婦さんが難民状態だとニュースなどで報じられていますね。どの国でも、安心して平和なお産ができるようになると、いいですよね。バリは私にとっても非常にご縁のある場所で、ロビンも愛すべく人です。この募金は１００％このプロジェクトに生かされます。
１ドルでも何かを変える力を持つ、ということで、ご協力いただければ幸いです。

英語がわかる方は以下のやりとりをお読みください〜

読んでいただき、ありがとうございます。

できれば多くの人にこのメッセージをお伝えください！



My friends, my beloved, beloved friends,



Every day I receive a phone call from someone who has heard the news on radio or television about a tragic happening and wonder what it is that they can REALLY do to make a difference. The powerlessness is overwhelming for all of us when we are faced with the magnitude of humanity’s loss…in war, in natural and in manmade disaster. In profound, senseless illnesses.



My response to these phone calls varies and has always left me with the question of what I can do to help people answer the call in their heart to help and REALLY KNOW they have made the difference that will answer that call in their heart.

___________________________________________________________



A month ago I Robin Lim was emailing me all weekend, telling me about the sudden increase in births at the clinic over the prior 2 months…there are now about 80 births/month at the Bali clinic, up from 50 last September. Between receiving babies that weekend she would email me, telling me that they had just birthed a baby on the massage table in the office, then again. It’s poignant and beautiful that her messages contain love for each mother and baby she receives, even when she’s panicked that she is out of room at the clinic. And way over-capacity.



Her message was clear to me and it left me temporarily paralyzed: we are out of room at the clinic and we need the money for a new clinic NOW.



From Robin to Katherine:



From: Ibu Robin
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:45 PM
To: katherine@gentlelanding.com
Subject: Re: From Robin Lim

DEar Katherine...
This morning we have a mom laying-in in our office on a massage table. Two in Each birth room. Two in doctor room, four in recovery ---- that’s 11 in less than 2 days... We are clearing out three of four to go home early this morning... But it’s wild... And I am in constant stress that someone will get turned away... We had almost all first time moms yesterday – that was 6 in 14 hours.
We rented Eka’s house for the new Australian Volunteers International midwife.... She has a one year posting starting in June and we get another one right away to replace her. We are working on that same deal for Aceh.
Aceh – just about a baby a day now.
Land... Working on it. some glitches but we know the perfect place is already in existence.
I dropped my handphone in the birth tub again.
I miss you so darn darn much... It’s painful
love, robin

SO ROCKY-CHARLOTTE-KATHERINE...(Robin’s nicknames for me)
with the numbers of births just skyrocketing... We will be in trouble soon... As there are legal limits as to how many can fit sideways in a room. Today I am draining the mosquito pond so we can find a way to build a temporary building in its place – extra birth room right there – I want to do it cheap and clean... As we must move ahead with every rupiah for the new, permanent clinic. Pray for the right piece of land. The guy who is selling us the rights to the road land is doubling the price. We are looking elsewhere, knowing in our hearts that the right place for Bumi exists in the heart of QuanYin and all of Gods that we are. It is just taking some time, and Sagitarius that I am, I want to fly ahead straight. Patience. Keep spinning.
we have had some nice births. My cell phone went into the birth tub one too many times - terminal. I was bummed when Pastika forced me to get on the motorbike and go with him to pick out a new phone. But it’s pink and beautiful and I am actually able to use it. I still miss my old half broken one. Go figure.
please help, Charlotte.

Love, Robin



__________________________________________________________



I spent that entire weekend looking into ways to raise a million dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat. At the same time I couldn’t shake all the voices of all the strangers and people in my heart who call and who ache to make a difference with exactly what they have to give. I found out that it takes time, resources and knowledge that I don’t have any of, in order to get grants, apply to foundations and talk to corporation-heads for contributions. It all takes too much and it is a “job” that doesn’t feel true to me.



I headed up to bed knowing I had failed the women and families in Bali…that I’m not a fundraiser, per se…that I had failed Robin.



__________________________________________________________



That was 11:45 pm on a Sunday night 4 weeks ago and I was ½ way up the stairs to go to bed, having the words in my head―“I’ve failed” when this thought was given to me from some divine source-- “I just need one million mothers to give me a dollar!”



The voice came with such strength and certainty (and not from me)!



It stopped me in my tracks and I KNEW that was not only the answer to Bumi Sehat, but also to all of us who want to know that we HAVE made a difference, that we have answered our heart’s longing for helping others in a significant and very personal way.



It would be a way for all of us to connect and create a divine army of caring and effectiveness which alone each of us, would never be able to affect.



_________________________________________________________



I have spent the last four weeks setting up this new initiative and want to introduce you to our new “baby”―

A Million Mothers www.amillionmothers.com



The concept is simple, as the website says―if everyone who receives this message donates one dollar, then passes it on to all the people they know, who pass it on…



You get the picture.



To date I have received almost $900 in envelopes from all over the country―in the name of their mothers, from mothers, in the name of their sister-who-is-a-mother…all full of a dollar, or a few dollars or a check. Many anonymous dollar-donors. From places like Wisconsin and Nebraska.



I don’t know anyone in Wisconsin and Nebraska.



Envelopes with little notes saying things that amount to: “don’t quit.”



I have a large stack of envelopes which came to my home full of love and hope. All with a dollar in them.



It is profound. And heartwarming.



And I learned something I never REALLY knew before now---



Those of us who have committed to the Bali clinic REALLY make a difference to the families in Bali. To Robin.



_____________________________________________________



A few last things (for now):



MY IMMEDIATE GOAL IS TO CREATE SOME CHAOS WITH THIS―TO HAVE PEOPLE SEND IN THEIR DOLLARS DURING THE WEEK OF JUNE 1. ON THE WEBSITE IS MY MAILING ADDRESS AND I’M HOPING TO RECEIVE 10,000 ENVELOPES IN THAT WEEK SO THAT MY POST OFFICE (THEY LOVE ME THERE) IS INUNDATED WITH ENVELOPES OF HOPE.



THEN I CAN CALL THE MEDIA (THEY LOVE THAT KIND OF STUFF). WE WILL THEN BE ABLE TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE EVEN FASTER AND FURTHER.



I THEN HAVE VOLUNTEERS ALL LINED UP TO PROCESS THE ENVELOPES.



Every envelope is logged with the amount of donation. Please see the website for all the details to donate. Then send this email along to EVERYONE you know with a personal message from you, inviting them to send in their envelopes. You can also donate online.



Please.



· I will be posting a UTube video about our initiative in the next couple of weeks…but for now a woman called and asked if she could do a “my space” thing about A Million Mothers. I don’t really know what My Space is, but here’s the link and it’s BEAUTIFULLY done: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=379908534

· Please forward this to everyone you know with your own personal note. We all love and ache for personal. Please keep this alive.

· I will be posting updates to myspace and to the website every week so that the initiative can be tracked.

· My goal is to have raised this money by September 1 so I can take it with me to Bali on the 18th.



I will be in close touch with updates in the next weeks.



Bless your golden hearts and thank you from the depths of mine.



Yours in true, true love,

Katherine