This is a unique project FOR midwives, created BY midwives.  

Indonesian midwives from Bumi Sehat birth centre in Bali, Indonesia have been invited to travel to Perth, Australia for a midwifery study tour to further their education.

Bumi Sehat is a by-donation clinic that provides the most gentle, safe and culturally appropriate midwifery care in Indonesia. The clinic has a focus on reproductive health but also offers free general health care services to people of the local community.
Bumi Sehat provides humanitarian relief and has been a first responder after disasters in Indonesia, the Phillipines, Haiti and most recently in Nepal after the May 2015 earthquake. 


 
Indonesia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in South East Asia. It is well recognised that one of the key factors for improving maternal mortality rates is the attendance of skilled birth workers. The Bumi Sehat midwives are awesome! They rock. However,  like most midwives from developing countries they have limited opportunities for continuing education. Professional development is virtually non-existent in Indonesia so midwives that want to improve their education face a huge challenge in accessing further training.

This is why I have designed this project.




This project will focus on midwives enhancing their clinical skills and knowledge, fostering positive and constructive relationships with Australian midwives and experiencing both cultural and practical differences of midwifery care in a first world health care setting.

The goal of this project is that the midwives will return to Indonesia with a broader perspective on midwifery care, equipped with a refined skill set to be utilised when caring for Indonesian women in a limited resource setting. Each of the midwives selected to participate in this project is committed to sharing the lessons learned with their fellow midwives upon return.

The improved practices developed in Australia will be shared with the thousands of Indonesian midwives and midwifery students who visit Bumi Sehat every year as part of the Bumi Sehat gentle birth education program.



A small group of two midwives will travel to Perth for two weeks. They will attend lectures and tutorials at a local Perth university as well as visit hospitals, birth centres and community midwifery practices. The midwives will work one-on-one with Australian midwives to be mentored and supported in gaining insight and understanding of midwifery practice in a different cultural setting.

They will also host their own workshops and skills sessions to share cultural midwifery practices that are specific to Indonesia and Bumi Sehat. 

An amazing administrator, Eka, who works tirelessly for Bumi Sehat and myself, an Australian volunteer midwife, will travel with the midwives to assist with organisation, liason and translation. 

Indonesian midwives have a very small salary and barely have enough to sustain their daily lives. They earn approximately $200 AUD per month.  Considering this, I am hoping to cover ALL expenses by crowdfunding. Most of our midwives have never left Indonesia, some have never left Bali so I need to organise passports, visas, flights as well as living expenses. 

We will also be trying to reduce costs as we are currently looking for free or discounted accommodation. We will be eating our fair share of Pop Mie packet noodles and mostly cooking at home, however as you probably know living costs in Australia are quite expensive. If there is any money left over  this will go into organising a educational seminar on our return to Bali to share lessons learnt from our Australian midwifery colleagues. 

If we make more money than we need, then that is FANTASTIC! I plan to continue this project so that all of the Bumi Sehat staff will have an opportunity to study in Australia, so any extra money is a wonderful outcome for the future of Merging Midwives.

Here is the breakdown.

Passports x 3:                $200   
Visas x 3:                        $450
Flights x 4:                      $2500
Insurance x 3:                $500
Accommodation:          $2000
Food & living costs:      $3500
Car hire & fuel:               $650
Workshop:                       $200

Grand total:                    $10 000 AUD 

If you are not in a position to donate money, you can still help by spreading the word about this project. Or if you think you can help in any other way, please contact me on: [email protected] 

This is the first time I have done something like this and I am sure there will be challenges. 
 
If we are unable to raise the money, then we wont be able to go!

If we do go, there will be other obstacles. Travelling can be hard, especially with women who have never left their own country and going to a place that is vastly different from their own. Additionally, obtaining visas can be difficult, the midwives may get homesick, the language barrier, the cold weather in Perth, no nasi goreng on every street corner, the overwhelming nature of forward Australian people and general cultural barriers.

However we will embrace all these challenges and see it as life changing experience. Many Indonesians do not have the opportunity to travel overseas so this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.