What hasn’t changed is the need for a place where mothers can give birth safely.

That’s something Robin Lim and her team of midwives know, and what prompted them to travel to Indonesia last week.

Lim is the founder of Bumi Sehat Foundation, based in Bali, Indonesia, which provides health services for women and babies. In addition to bringing about 600 newborns into the world each year, the midwives and medical teams of Bumi Sehat are often first responders after disasters occur in the region. After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Bumi Sehat responded to care for mothers and babies, and became experts in post-disaster maternal and infant care.

When Indonesia was struck last month by another earthquake and tsunami, Bumi Sehat deployed once again.

Lim and her team of two midwives, three nurses, a doctor traveled to Palu, along with medicine and disaster relief supplies, and arrived as aftershocks were still rattling the area.

As they left the airport, “we were soon laying eyes on a city betrayed by nature,” Lim wrote Direct Relief in an email. “Buildings left standing teetered on the verge of collapse. Multi-leveled shopping malls, pancaked. Thousands of people camped in fields, under blue tarps and plastic bags. Many still hoped missing family would be found alive.”

In Indonesia, many hospitals and medical facilities were damaged in the earthquake, so Lim and her team set up outside of Badu Agung hospital in Palu, Indonesia, since the building itself was too structurally unstable to host patients.

Lim and her team have been conducting medical outreach to remote areas that have been cut off from medical care and outside aid. One of those places was the Sigi area of Sulawesi, and by Monday, the team there had helped oversee a birth.

“Nearly all of the pregnant mothers had lost babies in the past, most also suffered hypertension, all were malnourished,” she wrote. “We dispersed vitamins and advised them to eat more of the leafy greens from their gardens. Fish from the ocean was not marketed at all since the tsunami. Anyway, it’s too expensive. Eggs or chicken are impossible.”

By the end of the day,  Lim and her team had seen 200 patients. They’ve continued medical outreach since then.

On Wednesday, she posted that the medical team had been able to access Pipikoro, an area of Central Sulawesi that was only accessible by helicopter. The team was able to see 138 patients there.

Direct Relief will continue to support partner organizations in Indonesia like Bumi Sehat that are providing care for patients.

The post Caring for Mothers and Babies After the Earthquake appeared first on Direct Relief.

With much of the region’s infrastructure destroyed, local groups have been going to heroic lengths to care for survivors.

Still Recovering from One Earthquake, Bumi Sehat Steps Up Again

One of Direct Relief’s longtime partners in Indonesia is the Bumi Sehat Foundation, based in Bali, Indonesia. The group was working to help the community recover from the August earthquakes on the neighboring island of  Lombok when last week’s earthquake in Sulawesi struck.

Bumi Sehat founder Robin Lim told Direct Relief that her son-in-law’s family is in Sulawesi, trying to make their way to safety in Bali. Lim’s family isn’t alone.

“Sulawesi is an island where many people from all over Indonesia transmigrated in the 70s, 80s and 90s… This means that all over Indonesia, people have family in the disaster zone,” she said. “Many are still looking for their family members.”

Communication lines are largely down in Sulawesi and the fuel supply is critically low, further impeding relief efforts and compounding logistical hurdles to getting aid to the area.

“These coming weeks will bring much suffering and more loss of life, above the 1,400 confirmed dead,” she said. “The official death toll is not able to reflect the reality.”

Lim and her staff are working with Budi Agung Hospital in Palu. Many hospital employees are still unaccounted for and the building is structurally compromised after the quake, according to Lim. As a short-term solution, tents outside the hospital will provide shelter to patients receiving care.

“Bumi Sehat’s focus will be to care for the pregnant, birthing and postpartum mothers,” Lim said.

Lim’s group is also working to provide tents, solar lights and water filters, and has drawn from their operational budget to respond.

“Planning is difficult. Nothing can be assumed,” Lim said. “Getting our tents, supplies and medical team from the airport to the hospital may be by foot.”

From Search and Rescue to Medical Care, Muhammadiyah Providing Critical Care to Displaced

Tim medis @MDMCIndonesiaJawa Timur dari RS @muhammadiyahLamongan melakukan pemeriksaan kesehatan dengan berkeliling dari satu tempat pengungsian ke tempat lain mengingat keterbatasan BBM. Baca selengkapnya di https://t.co/LpK666RYpo #OneMuhammadiyahOneResponse pic.twitter.com/a1VtUXuNBn

— Lembaga Zakat Nasional – LAZISMU (@LAZISMU) October 5, 2018

Direct Relief is also supporting the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center, which is conducting medical outreach throughout the affected area.

The group established a medical outpost at Muhammadiyah University in Palu, which served over 300 patients over 48 hours, according to a post by the organization.

Dr. Zuhdiyah Nihayati, a medical volunteer from Muhammadiyah Hospital in Lamongan, said that patients, many of whom are sleeping outdoors,  are suffering physical effects caused by exposure to extreme heat in the day and frigid cold at night. They lack sufficient access to clean water, food and health services, the doctor said.

“Our target is to provide health services to as many citizens as we can reach.”

Proses evakuasi para korban gempa di Palu @LAZISMU @MDMCIndonesia#muhammadiyah #relawanbencana #bencanaPalu #evakuasi #lazizmu #mdmc pic.twitter.com/bci10cHQCd

— Muhammadiyah (@muhammadiyah) October 5, 2018

Muhammadiyah is also operating emergency shelters, providing meals, offering psychosocial support to survivors, and conducting urban search and rescue operations, including in the collapsed Roa Roa Hotel, where numerous bodies were found.

The post Indonesian Groups Going to Heroic Lengths in Tsunami Aftermath appeared first on Direct Relief.

Watch: Timelapse footage of Bali’s Mount Agung volcano erupting. Read more: https://t.co/kY9NGV2S6e pic.twitter.com/LmPC2Ewhfm

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 27, 2017

At the same time, Mount Monaro, on the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, continues to spew ash over nearby communities creating an ongoing respiratory health hazard and threatening livelihoods as acid rain impacts essential family food gardens. An evacuation order has been recently lifted by the government, yet the situation is largely unchanged. Direct Relief has already delivered respiratory supplies, such as N95 masks to local partner Medical Santo, a public medical center located in Luganville, Vanuatu. Additional support has also been requested.

Direct Relief emergency response staff are in contact with staff at local healthcare facilities on each island, as well as with the humanitarian response agency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as the AHA Centre.

The post Evacuations Continue for Indonesia in Wake of Volcano Eruption appeared first on Direct Relief.

About 11,000 people living on the island of Ambae, part of the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, have been ordered to evacuate by boat due to threat of explosion. Smoke billowed up from the volcano on Thursday, and officials said that the volcano had become increasingly active over the past week.

More than 6,000 people have been evacuated as a volcano in Vanuatu spewing ash and volcanic gas threatens to erupt. https://t.co/qaMW8yTuhg pic.twitter.com/CfxEVvrwf6

— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2017

In Bali, Indonesia, a separate volcano could erupt, and a 12-kilometer zone around Mount Agung has also been evacuated, and more than 134,000 people are living in shelters after being evacuated from their homes.

On Thursday, Direct Relief sent a shipment of specifically requested supplies to healthcare facilities working in partnership with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health. Included in the shipment are N95 respiratory masks to help filter out particulates and ash in the air, as well as eye drops and other requested items.

Direct Relief has also been in communication with clinics in Bali and stands ready to assist as needed.

The islands impacted by the volcano are part of the “Ring of Fire” zone that encircles the Pacific Ocean and is prone to natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Direct Relief has healthcare partners in the danger radius of both volcanoes and emergency response staff are maintaining close communications as the situation develops. Direct Relief has also reached out to the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance, known as the AHA Center.

The AHA Center was created by ASEAN in 2011 to coordinate the collective response by ASEAN nations to disasters within the region.

Last fall, Direct Relief signed an agreement with the AHA Center to provide prepositioned emergency medical supplies for ASEAN’s collective response to local disasters.

The post With Volcano Threatening Eruption, Direct Relief Sends Respiratory Supplies, Medical Aid to Vanuatu appeared first on Direct Relief.