The One HEART Foundation, one of the many nonprofit organizations that gather funding each year from generous donors in the Sun Valley area, was not extended a permit this summer by Chinese authorities to continue working in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
The development could be part of a larger crackdown, reported in the international news media, on non-governmental humanitarian organizations across China.
"Targeting NGOs is nothing new for the Chinese government," reported Verna Yu of Asia Times Online on Aug. 17. "Officials are always wary of groups over which they have no direct control. Unlike almost every other institution in China, from labor unions to schools, NGOs do not represent the ruling Communist Party and often receive funding from the West."
For 10 years One HEART Foundation, based in Salt Lake City, has trained village midwives and physicians in safe childbirth practices in the region.
"When we began working in these areas, one in 33 women died in childbirth," said Arlene Samen, a nurse practitioner, midwife and director of One HEART. "There were no maternal deaths in One HEART's target Area in 2008."
Through fundraising efforts in the West, including the Sun Valley area, Samen was able to provide $500,000 to $600,000 each year to train 12 physicians at four hospitals in the capital city of Lhasa in up-to-date childbirth methods.
The organization also succeeded in training and equipping over 1,000 outreach workers in delivering life-saving childbirth education information and supplies, including modern hygiene techniques.
"They will have to find their own funding now within China," said Samen, who left behind six One HEART program directors who will work under a doctor at the Lhasa Prefecture Health Bureau in the capital city.
Samen also left behind vehicles, some funding, and a remodeled training center and dormitory paid for by One HEART donors.
Though Samen said she hopes to one day return to her work among the Tibetan people, she plans to expand the One HEART model of providing education and birth care expertise in Nepal and among the indigenous Tarahumara people in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico.
"We will continue to work to increase knowledge of safe birthing practices among extremely marginalized people in the world, so they can deliver children with skilled birth attendants," she said.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
Tibetan children and mothers have been helped by One HEART Foundation for 10 years. Photo by
