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This is the story of two women. One woman uses a piece of clean string and a clean razor blade. With it she saves, scores, hundreds, probably thousands of lives. The people she saves are mothers and their babies. The mothers have given birth in a location where there is no medical assistance. Lack of hygiene, lack of knowledge, even some traditional practices in severing the umbilical cord,  provide the fertile conditions for infection. Sometimes mud or even cow dung are used to apply to the raw ends of the cord.  The clean string is used simply to tie the cord and the sterile blade to cut it.

Now this woman makes up cheap kits. They simply contain instructions, soap, sterile string, a blade and some sterile pads. This is all it takes to save two lives: a clean pad, soap, razor blade, a length of string and a set of illustrated instructions.  Each kit will save 2 lives. The kits are quietly  distributed to where they are needed thoughout the world.

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The other woman follows a similar path. She travels to rural Central America with a small team to carry the same simple message and also taking birthing kits with her. Year after year she returns and year after year she finds more women who, having seen the results of what she has been teaching others, wish to learn. Her course lasts 4 days. The woman educates child birth attendants to wash their hands. Thousands of women die every year simply because they do not. She educates them in the simple things that will save.

Both women know that 820,000 women die because of  childbirth every year; 99% of them are in developing countries.  They know that, worldwide, a woman dies in childbirth every 40 seconds. They know that three quarters of the 4 million babies who die every year could be saved by simple interventions. They know that so many women simply have no access to safe medical facilities (in Bangladesh for example only 9% of births take place in clinics or hospitals). They know the grief and suffering of so many families through these events.

So quietly, simply, they have rolled up sleeves and helped.  No full spread media campaigns, no double-space TV ads, no fleets of white SUV’s, no first-class  ’celebrity spokesperson’ visits. They just do it themselves, unsung heroes, quietly saving lives…

1)   http://wordbirthaid.org (http://www NULL.worldbirthaid NULL.org/)
2)   http://safemotherhoodproject.org (http://safemotherhoodproject NULL.org/)

To help these projects, please donate to Rose Charities and we’ll direct your funds to these amazing projects.

Rose Charities has been in Sri Lanka since the devastating Tsunami in 2004. Since then, we’ve expanded our projects beyond disaster relief. Rose Sri Lanka now has 14 preschools, a primary education enrichment program in 25 schools, a secondary education enrichment program, merit and need based university scholarships, women’s support groups and vocational training, girls leadership and sport clubs, health and nutrition programs, and their own disaster relief efforts.

Read more about the amazing accomplishments last  with the Rose Sri Lanka 2011 bulletin.

Antidote to personal doom and gloom .. (with thanks to  Luke Johnson: Financial Times: Nov 9, 2011)

1) Study history:   It puts the present situation into context. Worse situations have occurred many times before

2) Avoid the news:  Editors believe bad news sells better than good. Neither do many hesitate to exaggerate

3) Spend more time with the young:  Age and experience make too many older people cynical and at times melancholy

4) Remain rational :  The worst almost never happens

5) Avoid pessimists:  Keep the company of sunny characters

6) Read the Stoics:  Writers such as Marcus Aurelius have given uplifting advice for hundreds of years

7) Admit mistakes and move on ; We all make bad decisions at times. Don’t dwell on them. Recognize them, learn,  and move on

8)  Keep busy:  dynamic individuals don’t have time to become depressed nor are interested in doing so

9) Get fit:  physical exercise is an excellent antidote for stress. Endorphins help banish the blues

10) Focus on small wins:   we all have little victories every day

11) Ignore events over which you have no control:   worrying about such things, such as what will happen to the Euro,  is a waste of intellectual effort.

12) Concentrate on your own micro-economy: forget the macroeconomic climate.

13) Laugh:  seek out comedy when you can.  Don’t take yourself too seriously

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Haiti for me was an emotional rollercoaster. A land of despair, poverty, mayhem but also a land of hope, optimism and pride. These last 3 sentiments are what stick with me as I reflect on my experience. After all, it is the people that leave an impact on you.

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Rose Charities Access for All project in Cambodia provides housing for disabled women in close proximity to education. A unique aspect of this program is the Disability Awareness Campaign, where the residents of the home carry out a program in the surrounding villages to break stereotypes about disability. There is a lot of discrimination in Cambodia against people with disabilities. This program allows these girls to show the community what they are capable of – everything!

In December the girls were able to carry out this campaign in two locations. One was conducted at Prey Veng provincial pedagogy.  There were 116 people in attendance, 32 females and 84 males. Of these people, 18 were from District office of education, 10 were school directors,1 was from the health department, 3 from provincial dept of education, 3 from POSVY, 19 disabled students from the University, 10 Disabled students from High School and 50 Disabled teacher from Prey Veng province.

(http://www NULL.rosecharities NULL.org NULL.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/camb-screen1 NULL.jpg)The Rose Charities Sight Centre (http://rosecambodia NULL.org)  is back in action in the Villages, screening for eye disease an curable blindness.  In 2002 Rose Charities owned several vehicles and had an active outreach program but its vehicles were stolen and the Eye Centre looted of all equipment. Now however, thanks to the dedication of Drs Hang and Natalia Vra, and donors from Canada, New Zealand the UK and USA, the program is back in action again.

On this occasion, some 300 villagers were screened, and over 100 referred to the Sight Centre for sight restoration or blindness prevention .

Despite the events of 2002 the Sight Centre has treated, surgically, medically or optometrically over 100,000 Cambodians since that time, the vast majority too poor to be able to afford treatment by the medical system.

The sight center is still in need of funding for these outreach trips, please donate so we can keep them going.

Ka Lek is studying a Bachelor Degree of Accounting at the Chea Sim University of Kamchey Mear in Prey Veng Town. She is able to attend this institution because of the Access For All project which allows women with disabilities to move in to a “Supportive Home” in the town which is in closer proximity to higher education than the girls’ home villages. Lek’s recently received a generous scholarship from  Kerrie Anson of Australia. Many other students like Lek need funding for education. University in Cambodia costs around $300 USD a year, click here to sponsor a child.

After Lek’s first year of study her family was struck by tragedy when her father died. Lek’s sister became the head of the household. She had two children and her husband soon left to remarry. Lek’s sister also died and Lek was then left to look after her sister’s two children and her mother alone. With sponsorship Lek feels like she can study and gain employment  which would provide a stable and more sustainable future for her family.

Lek was born with her left leg missing below the knee and could only crawl – at the age of 17 months her father made her an artificial leg from thread spools and kapok branches – with some difficulty, Lek managed to walk with the aid of the home-made prosthesis for 5 months. At this time, Lek’s parents heard about the Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh and made the arduous and expensive trip to the city to try to get a proper prosthesis fitted.

Lek is very proud of her prosthesis and wears it all the time, she is now not hindered by her disability and can carry water, climb trees, plant rice, fish, ride bicycles, tend cattle and go to school as well help with household chores like any other Cambodian child.

Ka Lek before her prosthesis was fitted by VI in 1997

Ka Lek cooking her lunch after returning from school at the Supportive Home in Prey Veng Town

By contributing to our Direct Clinical Costs, Rose USA will be assisting Rose Cambodia Rehabilitation Centre to provide approximately 83 therapy sessions to patients both in the hospital and out in the community.

In providing funds to contribute to this area of our work you are assisting us to improve the quality of healthcare services within the hospital and minimise the level of disability incurred through patient managment. Our physiotherapists work on the hospital wards, consulting with local Doctors and encouraging physiotherapy referrals in necessary cases.

One recent example of where our physiotherapists were instrumental in reducing disability was when a young patient who had sustained an ankle fracture and was immobile in bed in the hospital for several days, prior to being referred to physiotherapy. When physiotherapy finally attended to this young lady (a gap in services that physio took so long to reach this woman which has been addressed), she was found to have a nasty pressure sore on the heel of her foot and significant muscle deconditioning. When these issues were raised with the doctors, the response was ‘no problem’, which we at RCRC believe is a big problem! RCRC therapist went on to appropriately cast the injured leg, accomodating for the pressure sore, relieve pressure on the sore to encourage healing, and mobilised the young lady with crutches and began re-conditioning exercises. The result is that the sore healed well (these can potentially develop into very nasty wounds that fail to heal) and she was able to mobilise independently on crutches and go home safely with maximum function maintained.

Our clinical services also extend to the community, with staff providing patient-centred rehabilitation sessions in people’s homes, ensuring rehab is appropriate and beneficial and minimsing cost and difficulty for the families.

People with disabilities in Cambodia are known to experience even greater barriers to accessing health care than non-disabled Cambodians. Our way of clinical service provision aims to address these barriers and encourage better health care for all, especially those with disabilities. Our clincal work not only aims to provide quality care for Cambodians, but also to reduce and prevent disability.