A Traditional Birth Attendant with her maternity pack including a birthing kit

Tibet

Project Overview

UNICEF have no statistics for maternal mortality in Tibet, however, the need is great with many home births for cultural reasons or due to remoteness.

Transport of kits into this region is not always straight forward. The places the kits are needed are very remote often with the only form of transport being horse back.

BKFA works with the following organisations
1. Kham Kampo Association (KKA)
2. Wind Horse Project
3. Gar Tibet Health Project  

Participating Organisations

Kham Kampo Association (KKA)

This is an organisation associated more with electric generators for remote regions than health, however, the BKFA has worked with them since 2006 as they distribute our kits to remote regions. Bathang County consists of 74 administrative villages, the population is 45,000, 78% of the population is Tibetan who mainly live in the remote regions. The Birthing Kits are used by Trained Midwives for home births. KKA is working with the Bathang Women’s Health Protection Association in trying to hold a 3 day Birth attendant training programme. Political unrest around the 2008 Olympics made it impossible to gather the women from remote regions together for the training. Similarly so, there was more political unrest within China and Tibet again in 2009. 7500 kits have been supplied in the past two years.

Wind Horse Project and Gar Tibet Health Project

This project involves the following 4 organisations Gargon Health Project, Tibet Aid, Gar Tibet Health project and Wind Horse Project. All together 600 kits were sent. Some kits were carried by horse back by monks. Some went to Chetsang Rinpoches Monastery in Lapchi. Some were taken to the extremely remote area of Gargon and Tsi-Chu in eastern Tibet, where classes in maternal child health skills were held and many women instructed on the use of the birth kits.  Some kits went to Qinghai province.
www.tibethealthproject.org