Robin Lim, a Filipino-American midwife, was awarded $300,000 in December when she was announced as the winner.
She 54-year-old won the award for her work with the non-profit Bumi Sehat Foundation setting up free birth centres in Indonesia.
She has now confirmed that the money will go towards setting up another free birth centre in the country.
She said the money is ‘not enough to build a proper clinic that will be earthquake-safe and serve the many thousands of people we help, but it is enough to make a start’.
She added that 2011 was a great year and that she expects this year to be even better.
As reported in
Midwives, Robin received the honour at a star-studded event in Los Angeles on 11 December.
When receiving the award, she made a tearful speech about the number of women who die in childbirth around the globe.
‘Today on our Earth, 981 mothers in the prime of their life will die, and tomorrow again and yesterday,’ she said.
‘And I'm asking you to help change that. We don't even know how many babies are lost, but all of us can help change that.’
Robin has eight children and has dedicated her life to preventing neonatal and maternal deaths in Indonesia, after a year in which three people very close to her died, including her pregnant sister and the baby.
She set-up two centres in Indonesia at which anyone can give birth for free or a small voluntary donation.
As well as providing free prenatal and birthing care to women in need, the centres offer 24-hour care and general medical aid.
For more information on Robin’s work, please visit her
website.
