Mercy In Action’s Experience the Model Learn and Serve

Participant Reviews

The Learn and Serve Program offered by Mercy in Action is one of the finest programs to both learn about saving lives in maternity and newborn care, while immersing oneself in the culturally sensitive paradigm of learning and serving in low resource settings.

From the time that I decided to participate in the Learn & Serve program with Mercy in Action, the process was seamless. From getting answers to every question that I had, to ensuring that we had all the resources to safely arrive into the Philippines and integrate with our cohort of learners, to transporting us to where Mercy in Action is based, everything was organized and smooth.

As far as the program itself: It is a beautiful mix of a small component of self-study (with all the resources provided) prior to arrival, to an extensive amount of practice through each module of both the Helping Mothers Survive and the Helping Babies Breathe Train the Trainer workshops. The teachers are skilled and thorough, and Vicki Penwell provides the much-needed wisdom of caring for the mothers and babies through her years of lived-in work. Then, being able to teach local groups of health care workers, who will carry the skills forward to save lives in their communities, working together as a group, and finally earning the certification to be able to teach the same in our own communities - the experiential learning is priceless! Priceless also was the visit to disaster-prone areas, and learning first-hand the impact of disasters on Maternity care, and how to meaningfully provide survival help in times of emergencies.

One last thing, I want to add - Being able to witness, The Mercy Kasama program in action, developed by the Mercy In Action team to provide support, health parameters monitoring & recording the effects of good continuity of community-based care in the geographically far-flung, local resource poor settings, for babies up to 2 years is path-breaking to say the least. This was real learning while serving!

We know that Midwives and Midwifery Models of Care save lives. However, this program really shines the light on how we as health care workers can learn to serve, and impact Maternal and Newborn care both in the short term and long term.

A big thanks to Vicki Penwell and her fantastic team at Mercy in Action for running this very powerful Learn and Serve program. I cannot recommend it enough.

Dr. Vijaya Krishnan, CPM, DPT, LCCE, FACCE

Director The Sanctum Natural Birth Center

Hyderabad, India

Wow! Thank you! I’m still processing and in awe of how God has used you and Mercy in Action to impact so many lives! Thank you for SHARING all that you have learned that works in the co text of developing countries! This training truly has the ability to save and change lives and the future of nations. It was lifechanging for me personally...

Angie Quintana, Haiti

The team did an amazing job organizing, communicating and training. The speakers demonstrated the subject matter with clarity, appropriate language, respect, professionality, humility, and confidence. What an incredible opportunity this was to learn and serve as an individual, but even more so, as a family. The objectives and outcomes have already proven to be so desired in my context. So honored to have been able to attend. All of this to say, thank you so much for the time, effort, love you all poured into the Learn & Serve Seminar. I'm in awe and knew it was exactly what we needed ...Thank you so much for hosting us.

Danielle Carlstrom, Madagascar

All of my expectations for this learn and serve were met and exceeded. The program was very well put together, I learned so much, and everyone associated with the trip was so kind and gracious. We saw firsthand how the program is making an impact in the Philippines. Great program and trip! I’m happy I was able to go, learn, and serve. I feel that the trip had a lifelong impact on who I want to be as a midwife.

Paula Marti, USA

We wanted a travel experience that was meaningful. We wanted to know that the funds spent on our trip were also supporting a wholesome initiative. We wanted to learn in real-time some strategies for supporting maternal-baby health on-the-ground in a high mortality area. At the same time we wanted to see the Philippine culture and enjoy some of the beautiful sights, smells and tastes that the country has to offer while only having a limited time frame. Mercy In Actions learn-and-serve offered the perfect opportunity for all of this. I attended with my husband (a paremedic), and I’m a midwife, but there were others in our cohort that had no health background that were still enriched by this experience. I have no regrets. What an awesome 10 days!

Megan & Beau Corbett, Canada

As a midwife of 7 years practicing midwifery in the United States, I have known since before my career started that I had an interest and call in global health work. However, holding a calling and becoming equipped to pursue that calling are two very different things. I decided to attend Mercy in Action's Learn and Serve training to gain a greater understanding of what it looks like to truly make an impact at the global health and global midwifery level from an organization that has spent decades perfecting their model. I went into this training with little expectation and left with so many things. I left with knowledge, understanding, empathy, but most importantly I left with a general skill set and the resources I need to continue to serve the under-resourced globally. A huge theme during Learn and Serve that I want to highlight was cultural competency as well as cultural humility. I believe every global health worker should have the opportunity to truly grasp these concepts as they go hand in hand with the work itself. I was completely blown away, honored, empowered, and humbled by this trip and this training. Thank you Mercy in Action for living the truth you teach, and truly doing God's work. I hope to be back soon.

Alia Johnson, Licensed Midwife, Certified Professional Midwife, USA