Yunnan Province, located at the southwest border of our country, is a poverty-stricken ethnic minority area with inconvenient transportation and backward medical treatments. To further support the development of maternity and child health care in the Western Region as well as develop Mme Soong Ching Ling’s act of charity to benefit more women and children in accordance with the spirit of “Safety for Mothers and Babies” concluded at the project meeting, we chose Yunnan to be the major province of the project in 2008.

　　From February 25th to March 2nd, Ai Boying, General Secretary of the China Welfare Institute (CWI) and other three people went to Simao Area and Xishuang Banna Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province to inspect the work of maternity and child health care there. Accompanied by the officials of Health Department of Yunnan Province, they paid a visit to Pu’er City Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Maternity and Child Health Hospital in Ning’er County of Pu’er City, Health Center in Mohei Town in Ning’er County of Pu’er City, Health Center in Nakeli Village in Ning’er County of Pu’er City, Health Station in Kunge Village of Bulang Ethnic Group in Mengyang Town, Maternity and Child Health Hospital in Menghai County of Xishuang Banna Prefecture and Health Center in Xiao Mengyang Town in Jinghong City of Xishuang Bannan Prefecture. The aim was to know the actual local situations of health and study the way to develop the aid project of “Safety for Mothers and Babies”.

　　On the way, the pristine folk custom, the rugged natural environment, tough medical conditions and the professionalism of the local medical staff impressed us deeply.

　　Providing Home Visit Service in Middle Night and Racing with the Time

　　Mohei Town, being known as “The City of Salt in Southern Yunnan, Ancient Tea Road and the Land of Beauty”, is a salt-producing place in the ancient times, a major town on the Ancient Tea Road, and the hometown of the actress Yang Likun who played the role of Ashima in the film Ashima.

　　Tian Zhenlong, Dean of the Health Center in Mohei Town, is the first Mohei people we knew. As a Dean, for the past ten years or more, he went to every village and worked hard for the maternity and child health care in Mohei Town. Mr. Tian is well known among the villages. When his name is mentioned, people would give a “thumb up” sign to show their respect and admiration to him.

　　There are 17 kinds of ethnic minorities in Mohei Town, such as Dai, Hani, Hui, Yi and other ethnics. The town’s elevation is ranging from 786 meter to 2,271.6 meter. With a mountain area of 98%, broken terrain, high hills, steep slopes and deep valleys, Mohei Town is a typical town in the mountainous area.

　　The local people trust Mr. Tian the most. It is said that many local kids’ names were given by Mr. Tian. Even Mr. Tian himself can’t figure out how many names of the kids were given by him. It turned out that, for the babies whose birth was attended by Mr. Tian, the local people would ask him to give a name. People want to express their thanks to him in this way as Mr. Tian is a very kind and skillful person and hope the kids are healthy and sound ever after.

　　For Mr. Tian, it is very common to rent a car to the patient’s home in the middle night when there are emergencies such as childbirth and difficult delivery. Owing to the steep road, roll-over accidents happen a lot. Once a roll-over accident happened on the way, and it was impossible to send the pregnant woman to the hospital to give birth timely. Mr. Tian decisively asked the driver to turn on the car light. Under the glaring light and at the roadside, he attended the birth of the baby. Finally, both the mother and the baby were safe. Because under the emergency situation the mother should be sent to the hospital immediately, he forgot to give a name to the baby. Therefore, among the babies attended by Mr. Tian, this one is the only that was not given a name when he was born. After that, Mr. Tian said with a smile that since he was born on the road, we can call the boy “Lusheng”.

　　Despite of High Hills and Long Roads, It is Busy and Happy

　　The village doctors are the most grass-root level local medical staff, who not only have the closest contact with every household in the village, but also take in charge of the most onerous and specific work.  It is far from being easy to be a good village doctor.

　　The monthly regular general investigation of maternity and child health care is the busiest time for the village doctors. Owing to the inconvenient traffic, the high hills and steep road, the scattered households, usually it takes more than ten hours a day to get to a village.

　　Since there are many ethnic minorities in the village, the languages and custom are more varied. It’s said that in some local ethnics, all the males are called “Yan” (the Rock ) while the females are called “Yu” (the Jade). After getting married, the females are called “the wife of somebody”. The newborn baby was usually called by adding a character before the mother’s name. However, the recorded characters are different from the pronunciations and it’s hard to distinguish. If not familiar with the custom of each ethnic, you will definitely be confused.

　　What’s more, when it comes to the record of the children’s birth day, the ethnics usually do not use the solar calendar or the lunar calendar. They adopt the big events in the family or some memorable days in the year to record the time, such as “the baby was born on the millet harvest day” or “born on the sowing day” and so on. Therefore, it becomes harder to carry out the general census.

　　In Kunge Village of Bulang ethnic group, there are Kunge people that are said to be a branch of Bulang ethnic minority. They only have about 1500 people. The way to Kunge Mountain was very tough, and the car bumped greatly. In the front road was being paved, and we had to cross over the mountain on foot.

　　The village doctor in the Health Station in Kunge Village is from Kunge ethnic group, who is also a handsome young man with dark skin, big eyes and curly hair. His simple and honest character especially impressed us. When we asked surprisingly why they wanted to apply an astral lamp while the account book of the Health Station had recorded one already, the young man said with gestures due to language difference and because he was too anxious to explain, his forehead was even sweating. It turned out that the lamp recorded in the account book had been used for decades and was out of function long time ago. In the view of this young man, as a property to the country, the lamp should not be deleted from the account book before assets retirement was announced. To prove his words, he specially led us to see the nonfunctional astral lamp.

　　The village doctors are ordinary and busy, but they are respected by the whole village. With a subsidy of only RMB 80 Yuan per month, they bear the responsibility of keeping the health and safety of the whole village’s women and children. Year after year, the village doctors lead a busy and happy life.