NSW Nurses’ Association support Heath care in Aceh’s Camps

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Aceh on December 26th, 2005 the NSW Nurses’ Association assisted with a donation of $25,000 to help the tsunami victims, and many staff and individual Association members also held fundraising events and made donations.

PPNI Health Care Clinic

This funding was partly used to assist the initial emergency phase, and helped volunteer Indonesian nurses, doctors and engineers to travel to the western coast of Aceh, south of the city of Meulaboh, where they provided emergency heath services for the people, while the engineers cleaned out the household wells to provide clean water.

12 months after the tsunami, about 50,000 homes have been rebuilt, but many people are still living in camps for internally displaced people, often in tents, sometimes in temporary housing. Your donations are also helping here.

Conditions in these temporary camps are not ideal. While food and drinking water is usually available for the people, sanitation has been built, clothing has been distributed, some schooling for children has been established, and some health care provided through a camp clinic by the local government, there is still a great deal lacking. In the area of heath, while the camp clinics have sufficient medicine, trained personnel are in short supply. Moreover, there is insufficient water for bathing and washing in the dry season, and the congested nature of the camps means that during the wet season, contagious illnesses spread quickly and it rapidly becomes muddy and unhygienic.

The union for nurses in Aceh is the Persatuan Perawat Nasional Indonesia (PPNI) - the Indonesian National Nurses Association. The PPNI has a membership of 568 in the province and from this membership, 78 volunteer nurses are undertaking extra work in the camps to build on the very basic health service provided by the local government. The government is providing medicine and basic emergency care, while the volunteer nurses are supplementing this work by assisting in clinics and also teaching the parents about the specific need for an adequate diet, sanitation, immunisation and cleanliness in the crowded camps. They are also assisting the clinics with the immunisation program, providing counselling including trauma counselling for families, and providing a circumcision program for young males (culturally very important).

The volunteer nurses are working in seven camps which have a total population of 47,000 people.

The 78 nurses are volunteers, working in their spare time after work or days off from their regular work, so they are paid no wage for their work. However, they receive a small allowance to cover the cost of their travel to the nearby camp or hire of a vehicle for travel to the camps situated further away, as well as purchase of a meal, drinking water and other out-of-pocket costs involved in their volunteer work.

Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA believes these very dedicated nurses are providing an invaluable service, and will continue to support their work until the people in these camps have been able to rebuild and return to their homes.

You can support this work by becoming a regular donor today

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.
Site proudly produced by Social Change Online

Last Modified: Friday, 10-Feb-2006 12:34:24 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/projects/indonesia/news/1139527474_11049.html