Thanks to U.S. funding in the Philippines, for instance, more than 2,040 midwives are making family planning and maternal and child health services accessible to more lower- and middle-income families around the country. What's more, these midwives are earning a good income for their efforts at franchised, private-sector family planning, maternal and child-care wellness centers throughout the country.

One of these trained midwife entrepreneurs is Nazarina "Baby" Daria, who, with her husband, had operated the small grocery store they owned in Talisay, a small city in Central Philippines. She was looking for an opportunity to apply her special skills and talents to earn enough income to help raise a family. However, Nazarina did not know what opportunities existed in her husband's hometown or how to get started. Her cousin told her about a U.S. government-funded program that could help: the Well Family Midwife Clinics. With her husband's encouragement, she applied to the program.

The wellness centers for the Philippines came about in 1997, when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched these projects in partnership with eight nongovernmental organizations. Midwives selected for the network receive basic clinic equipment and instruments, rigorous training that includes business management, and marketing assistance to promote the clinics and the services they offer. The renovated or newly constructed clinics are sustainable, because the midwives invest their own capital, increasing their stake in the clinics' success. This sustainability is further ensured through a support organization that will provide ongoing supervision and guidance to the midwives long after USAID ends its assistance.

Through this program, family planning counseling, pre-natal and post-natal supervision, and the delivery of babies in a warm, caring environment have become attractive, accessible, and affordable to more middle- and lower-income families in the Philippines. USAID reports that the clinics serve an estimated population of 1.6 million women of reproductive age nationwide, including families in some Muslim-populated municipalities of Mindanao.

With the USAID program's support, Nazarina converted the family store into a cheerful lying-in health facility, complete with a waiting room, an office, examining and delivery rooms, and a recovery room furnished with twin beds, a tiny crib, a kitchenette, and even a TV. On call 24 hours a day, Nazarina loves her work of delivering 10 to 18 babies per month. "I never thought I could reach like this," says Nazarina, referring to her success as a businesswoman, "because I was just a plain housewife and storeowner. I always say, 'Thank you, USAID,' for giving the midwife a chance."

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