Robin Lim
Meet Robin Lim, also known as ‘Ibu Robin’, Founder along with Executive Director of Yayasan Bumi Sehat [Healthy Mother Earth Foundation]. Robin was awarded the prestigious CNN Hero of the Year 2011, UNIFEM Singapore Committee Woman of the Month (December 2008), Mothers Naturally Award 2010, Birthkeeper Award 2012 along with Alexander Langer International Peace Award 2006.
You are a wife along with mother of eight, a grandmother, a midwife, healer along with educator .You are also a published author. will be your novel ‘Butterfly People’ based on your personal history?
Butterfly People will be based on six generations of my family inside Philippines, coming from the 1800’s until today. This kind of will be biographical fiction about love, family along with tradition. This kind of will be about the simple joys in life which we all have in abundance. My grandmother, Hilot Vicenta Munar Lim was the village Hilot [healer] along with baby-catcher.
You became a midwife after experiencing personal tragedies. What led you here to do the work you are doing?
The death of my sister along with her baby due to complications during pregnancy as well as the loss of my best friend made me re-examine my life. My husband along with I sold our home in Hawaii along with moved our family to Bali. Once here I noticed in which there was a need to address problems such as malnutrition, especially among pregnant women. The modified rice crops yield more harvest nevertheless the rice has less nutritional value. I started off in a room over my kitchen, helping educate in pre-natal care along with infant care. I delivered babies in people’s homes. Demand for my services grew inside expat community as well. I obtained formal midwife certification with North American Registry of Midwives along with Ikatan Bidan in Indonesia. In 2003 with the help of the Balinese community along with midwives along with donations coming from friends world-wide, the first Yayasan Bumi Sehat Clinic was opened.
You offer free pre natal care, birthing services, medical aid, educational along with human services to over 50,000 people in need each year. You have clinics in Bali along with Sumatra, nevertheless you have also brought maternal along with infant care to devastated areas since 2004. What additional disaster areas have you brought your skills to?
The tsunami of 2004 in Aceh, Sumatra was the first disaster area we went to, along with we are still in Aceh. This kind of will be the largest catastrophe in our lives with over 400,000 deaths! The need there still remains great. All the first responders have left along with our clinic there serves the medical needs of the people. I believe everyone has the right to gentle, natural, effective procedures along with medicine. In 2006 the Rotary Club built a brand new clinic in Aceh for Bumi Sehat along with This kind of will be all off the grid using solar power along with additional green technologies along with will be earthquake resistant. In 2006 we went to Jogjakarta to bring aid to the earthquake victims followed by Padang in 2008. We brought services to Haiti in 2010 following the destructive earthquake. Haiti was such a terrible disaster. There was a lack of medical supplies along with doctors lacked instruments; they worked in tents. We teach how to safely cope with reproductive health issues in a disaster zone, along with how to work without instruments such as burning the umbilical cord rather than clamping along with cutting, which also mitigates the risk of infection.
What motivates you to create such positive change?
I believe in a benevolent hand in which dreams This kind of universe into existence. This kind of hand moves for me when I trust in utter uncertainty. As a midwife, This kind of will be the humble place, the centre coming from which I work. This kind of will be my belief in which original sin will be birth trauma because This kind of determines how we as a species impact our environment. Thus protecting children at birth will initiate a better world with the potential for healing change within one generation.
You practice a gentle birthing technique called Lotus or Wisdom birth along with are an advocate of natural birthing such as protecting the placenta along with the baby by not cutting the umbilical cord right after birth. Can you tell us about your brand new book: The Placenta the Forgotten Chakra?
I believe the placenta will be each person’s Tree of Life (Kayon in Indonesian). This kind of will be an archetypal symbol essential in Wayang Kulit [shadow puppet theatre]. The puppets represent form along with the shadows represent soul. Modern culture simply disposes of the placenta as waste. This kind of will be the result of an ugly revolution inside 20th century – the industrialization of childbirth. Babies delivered coming from the mother, not by her. Babies are ‘rescued’ coming from the womb, the umbilical cord clamped along with cut with no attention to the trauma of separating baby, mother along with placenta. Medicine becomes divorced coming from nature. The placenta makes the act of creation possible along with supplies stem cells, blood supply, along with nutrients to the infant even after birth. In most medical settings they take the baby away at the most important time, blood flow along with oxygen are cut off. Before the baby’s first breath, the infant feels death. Stillborn babies can sometimes be brought to life if the placenta remains attached by submerging This kind of in warm water or massaging This kind of. Ayurvedic medicine has recognized This kind of for millenniums. The jeeva [life force] of the child will be stored inside placenta along with passed gradually after birth. Our connection to This kind of life force was dismissed by the medical establishment, along with only currently being recognized by a more progressive medical establishment.
You are an advocate for parental rights. What will be the biggest issue here in Indonesia?
When families fear they cannot take their brand new baby home coming from the hospital until they have paid the bill; This kind of will be a human rights issue. Some are forced to relinquish their babies for adoption. Unreported along with largely preventable maternal along with infant deaths occur regularly all over the planet, where even average income families cannot afford to use medical services, even when their lives depend upon getting the help they need.
You are an inspiration for us all. I know at least 80% of your patients cannot afford to pay for your services. Even the many expats Bumi Sehat has helped pay by donation. How can people support your cause?
Bumi Sehat needs help to keep operations open while beginning the work of building a brand new clinic in Ubud to accommodate the increasing medical needs in Bali. We know we can do This kind of because of our loving partners we have here in Indonesia along with worldwide. We have plenty of volunteers. Our current lease expires soon so we are pressured to complete the brand new clinic soon. We need additional resources to do This kind of. Many people help us, in fact most of Bumi Sehat’s donors are giving little amounts, coming from their hearts, along with every penny, every rupiah, will be put to optimal use by our team.
You donated your CNN Hero Award to building This kind of clinic. I know there are many people here who would certainly love to support This kind of important project. Thank you Ibu Robin!
Yayasan Bumi Sehat-Banjar Nyuh Kuning
PO Box 116, Bali – 80571
Indonesia
Website : www.bumisehatbali.org
Phone: 62-361-970002
Contact : Robin Lim or Eka Yuliani at info@bumisehat.org
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Robin Lim
Robin Lim