MANILA, Philippines - Another Filipino has made it to the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.
Baguio City native Robin Lim, who now lives in Bali, is helping thousands of low-income women in Indonesia have a healthy pregnancy and birth.
Her Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) offers free pre-natal and birth services to underprivileged mothers in Bali.
Lim is a midwife and founder of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat health clinics.
She and her team have been working to combat the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates since 2003.
CNN asked Lim for her thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.
“Where were you when you got the call that you’d been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?” CNN asked.
Lim said it was breakfast time, and her family was gathered in an open-air kitchen in their home in Bali.
“Someone was cutting up papaya and mangoes,” she said.
“When I was told the news, I was joyful but thought, ‘Oh my goodness, can this be real?’ ... It seemed impossible that I would be named a (Top 10) CNN Hero.”
CNN asked Lim what she hopes this recognition would mean to the Bumi Sehat Foundation.
Lim said she hopes Bumi Sehat Foundation will have more support.
“Though my passion is patient care, day to day, my work is mostly fundraising,” she said.
“It’s a huge responsibility keeping the two community health and childbirth clinics open (for) medical service, and free weekly general health clinics...”
CNN also asked Lim what she would like people to know most about her work.
Lim said Bumi Sehat is built on three simple principles: respect for nature, respect for culture and the wise implementation of the science of medicine.
“Our focus is equality in reproductive health, including prenatal care, birth services, postpartum and breast-feeding support,” she said.
“We advocate for marginalized, displaced, low-income people from all islands, faiths and cultures.
“From our humble beginning as a community health and childbirth clinic in Bali, we ended up going to Aceh following the tsunami of 2004. And when earthquakes struck, we took Bumi Sehat’s heart and hands to Yogyakarta in 2006, Padang in 2008.”
Making her a Top 10 CNN Hero puts the courageous stories of all the mothers and babies in the world in the news, Lim said.