Location: Mulia and Sinak, Puncak Jaya district and West Papua

Situation:

With more than 40 million inhabitants living below the poverty line, Indonesia is faced with a precarious health and socio-economic situation, further weakened by many natural disasters. In these circumstances, access to healthcare for the archipelago's isolated populations and shantytown residents remains difficult. Indonesia is still, therefore, dependent on humanitarian organisations to deal with the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.

Activities:

Doctors of the World (DoW) is working in nine villages, continuing the programme in partnership with our local partner PRIMARI. The activities include running mobile clinics, training trainers, awareness-raising sessions on mother and child health for groups of women and sessions on reproductive health for groups of adolescents, providing support to health centres and supporting the testing centre at Mulia hospital.

Outlook:

DoW will continue the work that is underway with the addition of community component educating women on avoiding risks during pregnancy. We will also develop prevention sessions on HIV stigmatisation in the villages, encourage recognition of community health agents and strengthen the communication and advocacy work to lobby for better access to healthcare in Papua.