×

News publications and other organizations are encouraged to reuse Direct Relief-published content for free under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International), given the republisher complies with the requirements identified below.

When republishing:

  • Include a byline with the reporter’s name and Direct Relief in the following format: "Author Name, Direct Relief." If attribution in that format is not possible, include the following language at the top of the story: "This story was originally published by Direct Relief."
  • If publishing online, please link to the original URL of the story.
  • Maintain any tagline at the bottom of the story.
  • With Direct Relief's permission, news publications can make changes such as localizing the content for a particular area, using a different headline, or shortening story text. To confirm edits are acceptable, please check with Direct Relief by clicking this link.
  • If new content is added to the original story — for example, a comment from a local official — a note with language to the effect of the following must be included: "Additional reporting by [reporter and organization]."
  • If republished stories are shared on social media, Direct Relief appreciates being tagged in the posts:
    • Twitter (@DirectRelief)
    • Facebook (@DirectRelief)
    • Instagram (@DirectRelief)

Republishing Images:

Unless stated otherwise, images shot by Direct Relief may be republished for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution, given the republisher complies with the requirements identified below.

  • Maintain correct caption information.
  • Credit the photographer and Direct Relief in the caption. For example: "First and Last Name / Direct Relief."
  • Do not digitally alter images.

Direct Relief often contracts with freelance photographers who usually, but not always, allow their work to be published by Direct Relief’s media partners. Contact Direct Relief for permission to use images in which Direct Relief is not credited in the caption by clicking here.

Other Requirements:

  • Do not state or imply that donations to any third-party organization support Direct Relief's work.
  • Republishers may not sell Direct Relief's content.
  • Direct Relief's work is prohibited from populating web pages designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
  • Advance permission is required to translate Direct Relief's stories into a language different from the original language of publication. To inquire, contact us here.
  • If Direct Relief requests a change to or removal of republished Direct Relief content from a site or on-air, the republisher must comply.

For any additional questions about republishing Direct Relief content, please email the team here.

Caring for Mothers and Babies After the Earthquake

With limited access to healthcare and nutrition, pregnant mothers and their babies are at particular risk after disasters. Local midwives are working to change that.

News

Indonesia Earthquake 2018

Healthcare providers with Bumi Sehat Foundation see the smallest patients on Oct. 16, 2018, at temporary clinic set up in Palu, Indonesia, to treat people displaced by last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. (Photo courtesy of Bumi Sehat Foundation)
By Lara Cooper

Indonesia’s devastating earthquake and tsunami ravaged the northern coast of Sulawesi last month, and more than 2,100 people lost their lives. Hundreds are still missing, and life for many who survived has been upended as they contemplate how to rebuild.

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.”

With options for medical care limited after the earthquake, Lim and her team work to bring care to patients outside of hospital walls. (Photo courtesy of Bumi Sehat)

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.

Filed Under: , , , ,

Giving is Good Medicine

You don't have to donate. That's why it's so extraordinary if you do.