ON A MISSION

Trip Report-Indonesia staff Date: May 17, 2011 May 27, 2011 Location: Tello Island, Lasondre Island, Sibaranum Island South Nias, and Medan City North Sumatera Province, Indonesia Who: 2 students (Alanna and Sarah), 1 MAP International staff (Zora Nobles) and 1 MAP board member (Chok Pin Foo) Report by: Elvi Siahaan Operations Manager Date Submitted: June 09, 2011 Background: MAP International Indonesia hosted 2 student contest winners, Alanna Connell and Sarah Wangai, and 2 members of the MAP Team, Zora Nobles (Chief Human Resource Officer) and Chok Pin Foo (Board Member). The team joined the TMC (Tello Mobile Clinic) in Tello Island to go to targeted islands to provide health treatment and health education. The goal of the trip was to create an opportunity for the students to learn to provide health care and education in some of the most isolated and poorest islands in Indonesia. The team also was able to live together with community and to learn more about their lifestyle, culture and daily activities. Together with the team, we collaborated with Puskesmas (the government health facilitation) to give vaccination and vitamins for children under 5 years of age. Activities: On May 18 at noon all the teams arrived in Tello Island safely and met the TMC staff and Suparlan the Program Manager. After having lunch, we continued with briefing. The purpose of this briefing was to prepare all the team for next trip to the targeted island, to explain the activities, the regulation and brief information about the community- their tradition and culture and overview of MAP International Indonesia. The brief is very important to avoid the cultural conflict and so may the staff know what to do and not to do. The first island to visit was Tanah Masa Island, particularly serving at Hiligeho village as our first target. The team was Figure 1. Briefing with all team warmly welcomed by the community and we went directly to the village leaders house. The community was very enthusiastic in our coming and they generously helped in 1

unloading our goods from the boat. After having lunch and introducing the team to the head of the village and the community, the house of the village leader was arranged to hold Posyandu as our first activities to give vaccinations and vitamins for the children under 5 years old, and to continue with providing mother and child education. Sarah and Alanna were helping in weighing the babies and also registration. It was continued with Medical treatment and it was held until 7 pm. The team found 1 special case (a man who suffer from TB with his daughter who was suffering from Malaria at the same time) and so Dr David, Adiosman and Chock Pin Foo when for home visit. The team stayed overnight in this village. Happily all the team fell asleep even though they had to share the bed and some slept on the floor. The next day began with health education at the school for adults and students. Chok Pin and Alanna helped to teach about health and played some games with about 50 children. It was continued again with medical treatment until the afternoon. Around 4 pm, we continued our trip to the next village, Ahawese Village. It takes about 30-40 minutes walk through the jungle, with very narrow, hard, rocky and slippery road. But it was fun because for some of the team, this is the first experience for them and for Zora Nobles, it was very special because she had 4 small boys following her, learning English and singing for her. Similar activities were held in this village. But Ahewese Village was very different from the previous village. The environment of this village was neat and clean. The children were healthier and there were youths at this Figure 2. Transport to the island village, where the previous one had none. It was obvious that the people in this village were more educated than the other village. Unfortunately like the previous village, there was no proper toilet. After holding the Posyandu, health treatment, and health education in this village for 2 days, we decided to return to Tello Island before continuing our next trip to Sibaranum Island. But before we left this village, we sent one team to Sogawu Village, about 15 minutes away by boat to give vaccinations and vitamins to the children. On Sunday all the team attended the GBI Church together and continued with nice lunch. It was a nice treat from Chok Pin. After that we decided to watch movies to learn about Indonesia and to relax. All the team was very touched by the story including the US team. Good conversation and rest was the result of this afternoon. On Monday, we had morning devotion together with Tello Hospital staff at the Hospital and then continued our trip to Sibaranum Village at Sibaranum Island. It takes about 30 minutes to get there by boat. It takes about a 15-minute walk to reach the targeted village, and everybody helped to unload and take our luggage and supplies to the village. The same activities were again held in this island. Some special cases were found in this island including malnourished children and a girl suspected to have Cerebral Palsy. The community prefers to build a 2

Figure 3. Vaccination activities

community hall then a proper toilet. A couple of them have quite nice house with tile floor, but they also have no proper toilet. For them, having a toilet is not important but a nice house will increase their social status. Before we left this village, we took some time to swim together at the beach and then continue the trip back to Tello Island. On arriving in Tello Island, we took some time to review our trip with all team. The purpose is to pray together and analyze the trip or the activities. We received advice and input from Chok Pin from business perspective. Two of strong points are 1). If the income of the community increases, their health also increases so we need to find ways to help them to increase their income 2). Help the community to realize the importance of a toilet and find ways so they can have their proper toilet. Having a toilet will automatically decrease the percentage of sickness. On May 24, all the team returned to Medan and Chok Pin continued his flight to Kuala lumpur. Zora, Alanna, and Sarah spent some time in the Medan office to do some tasks and also check emails before they retuned back to USA on May 27.
Figure 4. Health Treatment activities