Like mothers all over the world, Tibetan mothers hope for a safe and supportive place to deliver their babies and to learn more about how to keep them healthy.  Tibetan families received this hope in the form of the Birth Center.  It is our hope that no women should die giving birth.  Hope that a child lives to see their first birthday.  THF’s health and education projects will help shine the light of hope into Tibetan’s lives.  Hope that the future will be better than the past.

The Birth Center is the result we have dreamed about – good quality, accessible, affordable, linguistically and culturally appropriate health services available for rural Tibetan women and their children.  The Birth Center is not a hospital but was created as a home for women who need a comfortable and safe environment where they can receive healthcare, gain health education knowledge, seek advice on nutrition and life saving needs, and improve their quality of life. Moreover, the Birth Center was created as a training center for local health workers, such as community midwives and village doctors who work at the grassroots level of health care, to improve their knowledge and skills of health in order to better serve health services in rural Tibetan areas.

In the 5 months of 2009 after its opening, 60 births occurred there, and in its first full calendar year, 2010, the capable staff attended 371 births and provided 3313 other services.  

•  We started to conduct short training sessions for Tibetan women at the village level in Malho Tibetan Prefecture. The  training curriculum will be maternal and child health care knowledge and skills that include prenatal care, delivery skills, postnatal care, newborn and child care, family planning, and common diseases management. The first session began on December 23, 2010 and will continue for a total of 12 sessions. We are planning to train 254 women total from 254 villages in the entire prefecture.

• Since April 2010, over $25,000 was received by donors for the Yushu Earthquake Relief services. The funds were sent to the Tso-Ngon (Qinghai) Tibetan Medical College. The medical faculty and students from this college have been providing free medical care and supplies to the earthquake victims over the last few months since the earthquake struck. Recently, a medical team from the college was sent to Yushu in November to provide additional follow-up medical care, supplies, and medicine to the local Tibetan communities who survived the earthquake and are still suffering.

The years, 2010 and spring 2011, were momentous for Tibetan Healing Fund; we have much to be grateful for, and we continue to be inspired to fulfill our mission:  to improve primary education and basic health services for rural Tibetan women and children.  Thank you all for your ongoing and compassionate support!