Join forces to fight the ravages of the pandemic in the territories of eastern Indonesia
After having sent the 2nd team on-site last week, Fair Future will leave on August 31, 2021, in reinforcement to join the Base Camp of Rumah Kambera in Sumba East. A 3rd team made up of Kawan Ayu, Kawan Hasto and Kawan Alex.
The mission is clearly defined in what we have been doing for months on the spot, namely: To fight as best as possible the devastation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic on the spot.
In short, the situation is largely dramatic here. People have no access to anything… Neither medical care, nor means of screening, nor vaccination which is largely in “shortage” mode here. We are a team of several dozen people on site. Mostly all volunteers. Doctors,. Nurses, logisticians, construction specialist, water specialist. Hand in hand with local authorities and the Indonesian Red Cross Society, we are trying to do what we can to save lives. The official health services rely heavily on our two twin organisations to help them.
Also considering the fact that Sumba is very far from Jakarta, help does not reach here for two main reasons:
- The economic factor: Jakarta thinks that we must first help the economically rich regions (Java, Bali, Sumatra), in order to support the collapsing national economy. This leaves several million people behind, and it affects the poorest regions of the 4th largest population in the world! I let you give me your opinion on this way of doing and thinking …
- The factor linked to the total lockdown: In a second step, the aid if there was one cannot reach us, because the country is completely closed. The goods arrive very difficultly on-site and anyway, I refer you to point #1 in order to determine the will of the national ministries to want to help the southern regions.
As a reminder, Fair Future and Kawan Baik are the only two humanitarian organisations on site. Why not Swiss Aid can not give us a hand? Its would be so much helpful and safe, fair too!
To join our Base Camp, it’s a real obstacle course
While normally, it gives us three hours of flight, we need for each sending of teams on-site, two days minimum: Denpasar, Surabaya, Kupang, Waingapu! And also do twice PCR tests and two antigens tests!
Our trucks are on their way to Waingapu, they should arrive in the next few days. They contain thousands of antigen tests, food, essential drugs to fight against Covid-19 disease. Our medical teams on site are impatiently awaiting this material, as is the population concerned: around 300,000 people!
What goes without saying is that we need more equipment, more medicines, more antigen and PCR tests. And for us as Medical worker on the ground, it is also permitted to dream of receiving a “Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test machine”, in order to test more and be really effective on-site.
There is none here and the only one available is in Kupang, an hour and a half by plane from Waingapu. And since no one can afford a flight, because we are talking about poor people here… I leave you to make your own deductions.
We will keep you informed from the field about the situation, with pictures and films if we can! Thanks and see you soon Kawan.
PS: Please feel free to comment on this post with your comments, suggestions, and if you would like to help us in any way, let us know here too. We will answer you as soon as possible.
