Below is a forward from Midwife Katherine Bramhall about her
inspirational quest to raise one million dollars - one dollar, one
mother at a time - for the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birth center in Bali,
Indonesia.

I first read about Yayasan Bumi Sehat on the website of author
Elizabeth Gilbert (who wrote the amazing book "Eat, Love, Pray").

Midwife Robin Lim and many volunteers have created a safe haven for
pregnant and birthing women in a country where so many lost family &
friends in the tsunami, where maternal mortality is high and adequate
nutrition and resources are often lacking.

I hope you will join me in sending your donation - $1, $5, $100 or
any amount you can!

Please pass this message along to all the mothers you know and
together let's help make Katherine's BOLD dream a reality!

Cathleen

+++++++++++++

Yayasan Bumi Sehat
http://www.bumisehatbali.org

A Million Mothers
http://www.amillionmothers.com

Mail your donation to:
Katherine Bramhall
25 Colby Street
Barre, VT 05641 USA
___________________________________________________
My friends, my beloved, beloved friends,

Every day I receive a phone call from someone who has heard the news
on radio or television about a tragic happening and wonder what it is
that they can REALLY do to make a difference. The powerlessness is
overwhelming for all of us when we are faced with the magnitude of
humanity's loss…in war, in natural and in manmade disaster. In
profound, senseless illnesses.

My response to these phone calls varies and has always left me with
the question of what I can do to help people answer the call in their
heart to help and REALLY KNOW they have made the difference that will
answer that call in their heart.
___________________________________________________________
A month ago Robin Lim was emailing me all weekend, telling me about
the sudden increase in births at the clinic over the prior 2 months…
there are now about 80 births/month at the Bali clinic, up from 50
last September. Between receiving babies that weekend she would
email me, telling me that they had just birthed a baby on the massage
table in the office, then again. It's poignant and beautiful that
her messages contain love for each mother and baby she receives, even
when she's panicked that she is out of room at the clinic. And way
over-capacity.

Her message was clear to me and it left me temporarily paralyzed: we
are out of room at the clinic and we need the money for a new clinic
NOW.

***From Robin to Katherine:***

From: Ibu Robin
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:45 PM
To: katherine@...
Subject: Re: From Robin Lim

Dear Katherine...
This morning we have a mom laying-in in our office on a massage
table. Two in each birth room. Two in doctor room, four in recovery -
--- that's 11 in less than 2 days... We are clearing out three of
four to go home early this morning... But it's wild... And I am in
constant stress that someone will get turned away... We had almost
all first time moms yesterday – that was 6 in 14 hours.

We rented Eka's house for the new Australian Volunteers International
midwife.... She has a one year posting starting in June and we get
another one right away to replace her. We are working on that same
deal for Aceh.
Aceh – just about a baby a day now.
Land... Working on it. some glitches but we know the perfect
place is already in existence.

I dropped my handphone in the birth tub again.
I miss you so darn darn much... It's painful

love, robin

SO ROCKY-CHARLOTTE-KATHERINE...(Robin's nicknames for me)
with the numbers of births just skyrocketing... We will be in trouble
soon... As there are legal limits as to how many can fit sideways in
a room. Today I am draining the mosquito pond so we can find a way
to build a temporary building in its place – extra birth room right
there – I want to do it cheap and clean... As we must move ahead with
every rupiah for the new, permanent clinic. Pray for the right piece
of land. The guy who is selling us the rights to the road land is
doubling the price. We are looking elsewhere, knowing in our hearts
that the right place for Bumi exists in the heart of QuanYin and all
of Gods that we are. It is just taking some time, and Sagitarius
that I am, I want to fly ahead straight. Patience. Keep spinning.

We have had some nice births. My cell phone went into the birth tub
one too many times - terminal. I was bummed when Pastika forced me
to get on the motorbike and go with him to pick out a new phone. But
it's pink and beautiful and I am actually able to use it. I still
miss my old half broken one. Go figure.

please help, Charlotte.
Love, Robin
__________________________________________________________
I spent that entire weekend looking into ways to raise a million
dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat. At the same time I couldn't shake
all the voices of all the strangers and people in my heart who call
and who ache to make a difference with exactly what they have to
give. I found out that it takes time, resources and knowledge that I
don't have any of, in order to get grants, apply to foundations and
talk to corporation-heads for contributions. It all takes too much
and it is a "job" that doesn't feel true to me.

I headed up to bed knowing I had failed the women and families in
Bali…that I'm not a fundraiser, per se…that I had failed Robin.
__________________________________________________________
That was 11:45 pm on a Sunday night 4 weeks ago and I was ½ way up
the stairs to go to bed, having the words in my head—"I've failed"
when this thought was given to me from some divine source-- "I just
need one million mothers to give me a dollar!"

The voice came with such strength and certainty (and not from me)!

It stopped me in my tracks and I KNEW that was not only the answer to
Bumi Sehat, but also to all of us who want to know that we HAVE made
a difference, that we have answered our heart's longing for helping
others in a significant and very personal way.

It would be a way for all of us to connect and create a divine army
of caring and effectiveness which alone each of us, would never be
able to affect.
_________________________________________________________
I have spent the last four weeks setting up this new initiative and
want to introduce you to our new "baby"—

A Million Mothers www.amillionmothers.com

The concept is simple, as the website says—if everyone who receives
this message donates one dollar, then passes it on to all the people
they know, who pass it on…

You get the picture.

To date I have received almost $900 in envelopes from all over the
country—in the name of their mothers, from mothers, in the name of
their sister-who-is-a-mother…all full of a dollar, or a few dollars
or a check. Many anonymous dollar-donors. From places like
Wisconsin and Nebraska.

I don't know anyone in Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Envelopes with little notes saying things that amount to: "don't
quit."

I have a large stack of envelopes which came to my home full of love
and hope. All with a dollar in them.

It is profound. And heartwarming.

And I learned something I never REALLY knew before now---

Those of us who have committed to the Bali clinic REALLY make a
difference to the families in Bali. To Robin.
_____________________________________________________
A few last things (for now):

MY IMMEDIATE GOAL IS TO CREATE SOME CHAOS WITH THIS—TO HAVE PEOPLE
SEND IN THEIR DOLLARS DURING THE WEEK OF JUNE 1, 2008. ON THE
WEBSITE IS MY MAILING ADDRESS AND I'M HOPING TO RECEIVE 10,000
ENVELOPES IN THAT WEEK SO THAT MY POST OFFICE (THEY LOVE ME THERE) IS
INUNDATED WITH ENVELOPES OF HOPE.

THEN I CAN CALL THE MEDIA (THEY LOVE THAT KIND OF STUFF). WE WILL
THEN BE ABLE TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE EVEN FASTER AND FURTHER.

I THEN HAVE VOLUNTEERS ALL LINED UP TO PROCESS THE ENVELOPES.

Every envelope is logged with the amount of donation. Please see the
website for all the details to donate. Then send this email along to
EVERYONE you know with a personal message from you, inviting them to
send in their envelopes. You can also donate online.

Please.

· I will be posting a YouTube video about our initiative in the next
couple of weeks…but for now a woman called and asked if she could do
a "my space" thing about A Million Mothers. I don't really know what
My Space is, but here's the link and it's BEAUTIFULLY done:
http://www.myspace.com/amillionmothers
Please forward this to everyone you know with your own personal
note. We all love and ache for personal. Please keep this alive.

· I will be posting updates to myspace and to the website every week
so that the initiative can be tracked.

· My goal is to have raised this money by September 1, 2008 so I can
take it with me to Bali on the 18th.

I will be in close touch with updates in the next weeks.

Bless your golden hearts and thank you from the depths of mine.

Yours in true, true love,
Katherine Bramhall
Licensed Midwife
25 Colby Street
Barre, VT 05641
802-279-3158
Katherine@...
www.GentleLanding.com