What are we doing here?

There are many times when I feel disillusioned by the amount of time my coworkers spend chatting and seem to be working – as – slow – as - possible.  As a fully indoctrinated member of the American work ethic, it has been a challenge to get my head around the nation-wide prevalence of this activity level in Indonesian offices.  There are other times, however, when I am extremely impressed and struck by the profound importance and capacity for life-saving impact that is PKBI’s work.  This morning we had networking/informational meeting with midwives from two of the poorest sub-districts in Jambi city.  Midwives are the primary provider of maternal and reproductive health in Jambi and after noticing that we were experiencing a lack of communication and referrals between these midwives and our clinic, it became imperative that we strengthen this relationship.  Our clinic has higher medical capacity than home-based midwives, has a 24-hour staff, and offers services that midwives do not have the resources or skills to offer, such as abortion.  A large part of the meeting was devoted to educating midwives about the process, prevalence, and importantly, the actual legality of abortion.  It was an opportunity to expand our reach into new boroughs and communities in and around Jambi.  It also reminded me how much we are needed, not only by the clients we help each day, but by serving as an established leader in women’s reproductive health in a city where the government has yet to adequately address or acknowledge the widespread tribulations facing women.