Luang Prabang province is situated in the north of Laos where it is mountainous and populated with a great number of diverse ethnicities. Most villagers live at subsistence level.
Access to health care at the nearest village clinic or district hospital is often limited and sometimes impossible, due to weather conditions, lack of transport, fear of safety on the journey, or lack of money. Sometimes there are prohibitive cultural beliefs or the fear of being treated unkindly and without privacy. When traditional birth attendants, midwives or healthworkers from a particular village or clinic feel unsure about a situation in birth, they will transfer women on to the district or provincial hospital. Ambulance services are rare, and women are transported either on a motorbike or in a car procured at great expense. Most village clinics and many district hospitals are gravely under-resourced, and often there is an unnecessary use of resources and money. Ongoing trainings for midwives and healthworkers is scant. Hence our desire to support women, babies and their families through the both-ways sharing of knowledge, skills and stories - and of course the inclusion of the best healers of all, a lot of song, dance and laughter woven into the mix...