Tuesday, April 24, 2012

“I was Just Dare/ Saya Nekat Saja” – Elisabeth’s Story


Cadres often identified with volunteers who work without pay or without receiving remuneration from anyone. They work by doing all the things that has to do with health problems and equipped with the knowledge needed for their work in accordance with standard operating procedures.
 
But there is something different with this one cadre named Elisabeth Wanimbo – 54 years old. It has been about 14 years he served as a cadre in the village in the district Pirime Lanny Jaya - Papua. She once was attended the school so that she could write. She has not been provided with any knowledge even related to health. She used to do the activities to help Posyandu even mothers who want to give birth. Only bold and equipped with little experience that she often saw the midwife doing the job, makes her passion to do so and the result was helping a lot of mothers, and their babies all survived.

When we invited her to participate in IMD (Early Breastfeeding Initiation) training, she was happy to come. When the activity takes place, she was given the opportunity by the facilitator to demonstrate how to help people during delivery ala cadre. Elisabeth directly shows the action in front of the participants by way of squatting and using her friend as a patient. With the squat position would make the other participants to ask, how to implement the IMD?

"Later, after the kid out, we put the child in a place that we already prepared. Later, we ask the mother to be in sleeping position so that the kid can be placed on the mother", answered this mother of 3 children.

Apparently according to the facilitator that was one right answer if we have to help people give birth by squatting. How fun to see what was done by Elisabeth. Under limited conditions it turns out she has a lot of knowledge to be distributed to other cadres. Let us hope that in the future there will be other cadres like Elisabeth.

Story by Sonya Tadoe, Rewritten by Willy Sitompul

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