NON-PUBLIC RESOURCES MOBILIZED
According to Drolkar Ja, the value of the birth center goes beyond offering safe and culturally sensitive delivery to rural and pastoral women. It also functions as a training workshop to help the local public health authority unleash the power of non-public resources in under-served regions.
"When the concept of the natural birth center was first proposed to us in 2006, we didn't expect it to play such a big and positive role," recalled Drolkar Ja.
"Our biggest concern at that time was that rural and pastoral women might not accept it since they don't even want to go to hospitals. But considering there is only one hospital in Tongren, the medical resources are too limited. We thought it would be worth a try," he said.
With a population of 89,000 scattered over 3,275 square kilometers, Tongren faced a difficult task in improving women's health.
"The birth center remains a rare facility today as many people doubt it can survive. Our initial aim is to realize sustainable operations, attract more people to join the work and help more low-income families," said Kunchok Gyaltsen.
With 90,000 U.S. dollars in donations from Kunchok Gyaltsen in start-up funds, Tsering Kyi, who is in charge of the center's operations, said she is proud to see the center is self-sustaining.
"In the beginning we lacked money and publicity. There was a time when I felt I could not make it, but when I thought of Kunchok saving money by giving lectures on Tibetan medicine and selling Tibetan calligraphy for charity while studying in the United States, I told myself to hang on," said Tsering Kyi.
To improve the center's publicity and spread health information to rural areas, Kunchok Gyaltsen wrote a script called "Lost Happiness," which was made into a TV series. Tsering Kyi played the role of a doctor to spread maternal and childcare knowledge through the TV program.
Kunchok also compiled a handbook of Tibetan-style drawings and pictures for illiterate Tibetan women to understand basic medical information.
In collaboration with local health authorities, more than 300 workshops have been held so far at the center to teach village and pastoral doctors and midwives as well as cadres belonging to grassroots women's federations how to handle emergencies during childbirth.
Another significant push to their operation has been from the government, according to Tsering Kyi. Since China included natural childbirth expenses to the new rural medical scheme, rural and pastoral expectant mothers in Tongren will receive subsidies of 500 yuan each for delivery in medical institutions.
"With this subsidy, almost all childbirth expenses here are covered. That inspires more rural women to choose delivery in institutions," said Tsering Kyi.
Drolkar Ja thinks it is time to spread natural birth centers throughout the country as its operational model proves sustainable. "But the premise is to ensure the safety of the mother and child," he said.
Kunchok Gyaltsen said the center could also serve as a model for poor, rural, hard-to-reach and ethnic minority areas elsewhere in China, as well as Nepal, northern India, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and other middle- and low-income countries to achieve high-quality care.
