New CNN Hero ‘very Filipino’

MANILA—The website described her as “an American woman who has helped thousands of poor Indonesian women have a healthy pregnancy and birth.”

But to relatives in Baguio City, Robin Lim, the CNN Hero of the Year for 2011, is “very Filipino.”

The 54-year-old Filipino-American midwife, fondly called Mother Robin or Ibu Robin, drew applause for her work in the Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) health clinics in Indonesia, which extends prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid to impoverished women.

She particularly promoted traditional healing practices and offered her services in Nyuh Kuning, a small village on Bali island.

Named this year’s hero by the American cable news channel after an 11-week vote on CNN.com, Lim will receive $250,000 for her foundation, on top of the $50,000 she and other honorees got for making it to the Top 10.

Lim is the second honoree of Filipino descent to be included in CNN’s roster of heroes.

In 2009, educator and social worker Efren Peñaflorida Jr. was named CNN Hero of the Year for his exceptional advocacy of educating Filipino out-of-school youths through his so-called “pushcart classes.”

Peñaflorida, who grew up in the slums of Cavite, founded the Dynamic Teen Company, which also supported Lim’s nomination.

In one of her letters to the Inquirer Northern Luzon Bureau, Lim described her campaign for the CNN Hero title as a crusade she made on behalf of every mother in the world.

“My CNN nomination is for the new mothers, who give birth in small dimly lit rooms all over our planet day and night,” she wrote in a letter dated Oct. 17.

“They are the true heroines. When I ask people to vote for me, I know it is not for me; I want it for them,” she said.  Inquirer