When the deadly tsunami swept up the Aceh coast at the end
of 2004, it destroyed more than houses, bridges and roads.
About 180,000 Acehnese died, among them uncounted pregnant
women, mothers and babies. A group of volunteers from Bumi
Sehat, including midwife Robin Lim, was soon on the ground
to carve a tiny sanctuary of safety and calm out of the chaos.
The little shack that was the first Bumi Sehat clinic at Samatiga
has evolved today into a comprehensive, modern community clinic
built by the Rotary Bali Ubud with money from Rotary Solidarity
in South Asia Fund. “When I look at the swamp created
by the tsunami and see this lovely gem of a clinic rising
out of it, carefully designed to meet the physical and emotional
needs of the people, I am so grateful,” says Robin.
When the initial aid workers reached the community of Samatiga,
north of Meulaboh, they found that between 30 and 90% of the
population within walking distance had been lost to the tsunami.
Of these about 80% were women and children. So as well as
offering support to the few surviving pregnant and birthing
women as planned, Robin and her volunteers found themselves
ministering to the general population for shock, coughs, rashes,
stress, depression, malaria testing and treatment, dengue
fever, infected tsunami wounds that had not healed, diabetes
and high blood pressure – all direct impacts of disaster-related
trauma, homelessness and hunger.
The clinic, which started out as a tiny tarpaulin shack, morphed
into a shed cobbled out of tsunami debris, then a two-room
bamboo structure with a porch and finally a permanent two-storey
building. But even this was inadequate for the constantly
increasing patient load and the teams of international volunteers
who continued to sleep on the clinic floor and later a dormitory
floor.
When the Rotary Solidarity in South Asia Fund suggested building
a comprehensive clinic in Samatiga, the offer was contingent
on Bumi Sehat supplying the land. A local man who had lost
his entire family in the tsunami offered to sell his land
for the clinic. He was ill himself and knew he didn’t
have long to live; he died a few weeks after the papers were
signed. The land was paid for by an old friend of Robin’s
in the United States.
“The funding was provided by the Rotary Solidarity in
South Asia Fund which was set up for tsunami projects,”
explains Project Leader Asri Kerthyasa. “The clinic
was finished just before Ramadan. It is really well designed;
not only is it attractive, but it’s already withstood
several earthquakes.”
The spacious clinic comprises two birthing rooms with water
birthing facilities, two overnight rooms, a check-up room,
a dispensary, staff/seminar room, reception and office, and
storage facilities. Most rooms have a shower and toilet. The
entire area, including a covered waiting area, is 390 square
metres.
The clinic has a light environmental footprint. Almost no
wood was used in its construction. “We used a pre-fabricated
steel frame construction with aggregate walls,” explains
David Kuper, a Rotarian from Ubud who was Technical Advisor
for the project. “Because reliable electricity is a
problem in the area, the clinic is fully independent –
we installed a combination photovoltic panel and windmill,
with a generator to back it up. All waste water from the clinic
runs into a waste water garden.”
David asked a Jesuit-run metal work school in Solo to quote
on the project, and their quotation came in 400% lower than
the one from an Aceh contractor. The clinic was prefabricated
in Solo and shipped to Aceh in two containers, where it was
assembled by a team from Solo and a local contractor. The
walls are made of an aggregate of cement and styrofoam and
are insect and fire proof as well as having an earthquake
resistance of 8. The fund donated $120,000 to build the clinic
and install the off-grid electrical system. Rotary Club New
York provided an ambulance, and all of the equipment and furniture
for the clinic was donated by Bayer at a total of $30,000.
Operational expenses for the first year are covered by Direct
Relief International.
Over the years since the tsunami, women have slowly been coming
to Samatiga and other coastal areas from inland to marry surviving
men, and new families are being created. The clinic maintains
medical records for over 12,000 people who now live within
walking distance of the new medical facility. Bumi Sehat volunteers
and Indonesian staff midwives, nurses and doctors still visit
regularly. They rotate between the Ubud-based clinic and Aceh
to keep the staff fresh and enthusiastic in the face of still-depressing
conditions. The Bumi Sehat administration staff in Nyuh Kuning,
Ubud operate the day-to-day function of the clinic in tandem
with Dr Eman and Nurse Jolinda, who head up the Aceh team.
Safe motherhood is still an issue in Samatiga, as it is in
the rest of Aceh. Even before the tsunami many mothers lost
their unborn babies to malnutrition, or their living ones
to tetanus, dysentery, malaria and other diseases. Robin,
who won the Alexander Langer International Peace Award for
promoting peace through action in 2006, designs programs to
build capacity among local government midwives and traditional
midwives in nutrition, hemorrhage prevention and control,
cord care and breast feeding. Another small program provides
used hand phones for local traditional midwives and pays for
the air time, so they can consult the clinic in case of emergency.
Rotary Bali Ubud Vice President, Marilyn Carson, recently
obtained four hand phones from a Rotary Club in Australia
just for this lifesaving purpose.
“This beautiful clinic is a miracle,” says Robin
Lim. “We have an ambulance. We have four Indonesian
midwives, a doctor, three nurses, plus translators, book keepers,
a maintenance crew, cooks, a traditional healer and two teenaged
boys orphaned by the tsunami who still work as gardeners for
us. The people of Samatiga tell us that they never had anything
like this before the tsunami. They give thanks to Rotary for
making it possible for the people of Bali and Aceh to hold
hands across the archipelago.”
For more information and to see pictures of the clinic, please
visit www.bumisehatbali.org
