Healthy Homes or Rumah Sehat...good works in practice.

Whilst David and I are interested in doing something useful here we have no idea what that something might be. So, when in doubt, have a good look at what others have been doing!

At the Rotary meeting we had to introduce ourselves and I noticed that one couple introduced themselves by saying they were running  a project that took healthcare services to isolated coastal and mountain villages on the east coast of Bali.  So at the end of the night I introduced myself to them - Sue and Ray Bishop - and asked them about it. ( more front than Myers I have!).

So to cut a long story short a few days later David and I found ourselves travelling  for three hours to Amed with Sue and Ray to visit the project. They are both retired business people_-one is Canadian  and the other Australian. They thought they'd take on a project to keep them busy in their retirement and have had an exciting few years watching it flourish and falter and flourish again.

Without the resources of a few Swiss bankers behind them it's been a challenge to fund it .

First stop was for breakfast at a small French bakery called the Loaf cafe in the middle of nowhere on the road to Candi Dasar, It wouldn't have looked out of place in the middle of North Fitzroy: food and coffee was fabulous and it even had french cafe chairs! No end to the surprises around here!

 Finally we arrived at a small set of buildings in the countryside close to the coast. We received a warm welcome from Ping, the onsite manager, and the two nurses who were on duty.

The basic idea is to provide free healthcare to local villagers via this clinic. And to provide services into the isolated villages in the mountains beyond Amed. Using a mixture of paid and volunteer staff they manage to see hundreds of villagers who would otherwise not access any health services because of cost and distance. Their staff/volunteers include doctors, nurses, dentists and a range of other medical  specialists when available (pay attention any of you who fall into any of those categories!Fancy a holiday in Bali with some charity work thrown in?).
Various organisations or people sponsor Healthy Days where they go to one village with as many healthcare workers as they can find and plenty of mobile equipment and then they see as many people on one day as possible. Sometimes they have specific theses eg pregnancy , birth and early childhood as identified by the villagers and workers.

 Sue and Ray and the two nurses

Ray showing us the finer features of the mobile dental kit       ; it has suction, drills ...the lot!

The dental chair

 They have no mental health workers at all, and no idea if there is a problem with mental illness.

 Because Ping knew Ray and I were coming he'd asked a few questions and identified 9 people living in cages in one small mountain village. All of the workers were surprised at the high number and they have never seen these people. Apparently the police take them to Bangli (the only mental hospital in Bali) when they are completely 'gila' (crazy). But once they return home there are no community support services at all and the families can't afford the medication and they soon relapse. And the cycle continues. We are assuming that these are people who have psychosis or schizophrenia. Bangli doesn't send any discharge summaries or medication charts to Rumah Sehat . The nurses were a little concerned about dealing with people with mental illness: one of them asked if they would have straitjackets.

I can almost hear the cogs in the brains of those of you who are mental health clinicians whirring!! David and I are planning a visit to Bangli and to talk to the psychiatrists at the general hospital to suss it all out further! The questions are many and the answers are few.

The other part of their program is aimed at equipping those students about to graduate from high school with some Intensive  Vocational training so they can get a job. We arrived to find them practicing how to be a Reception clerk at a Hotel with their American teacher Kelly. I volunteered us to be potential guests so we spent the next couple of hours role playing with each of the nine students. Exhausting but very rewarding as they tried to book us into the right rooms, told us what was fabulous about Amed (apparently they make a huge amount of the arrack drunk in Bali: its a very strong whisky liquor), suggested where we should eat, etc etc.

Donated laptops

Before we headed for home we did a drive along the coast to have a look at Amed as it's a popular spot for divers, tuna fishing and generally hanging out at white sand beaches! We stopped at a bar with a million dollar view but resisted the temptation to try the local arrack,before heading for home.

As we wove our way along the coast and valleys the mountains towered over us. The idea of living so far from everything and often with only walking access is very challenging.

The landscape looked very green and lush but that was entirely due to a significant rainy season which is drawing to a close. Sue showed me some photos of the hard times when it's hot, dry and brown and its impossible to grow anything: a very different scenario.

Sue and Ray invited David and I to join them when they go to one of the mountain villages at the end of February, Apparently the last section takes 45 minutes of almost vertical walking (so its a damn good thing that I have been going to the gym!).

All very thought-provoking and fascinating. It is truly inspiring to see what a couple of people with no experience in health and education can do with minimal funding and a lot of enthusiasm and commitment,

your impressed correspondent

Dianne  

I just had to add this photo for all the dog fanatics out there. Charlie, Sue and Ray's lab just loves a ride on a scooter so here is all set to take the rubbish out and with his tail dragging along on the ground on the other side!!