That Time I Carried a Baby Goat and Ate Weaver Ants

I met the heroes of Sukadana for the first time on May 15, 2017. Two friendly smiles greeted me, “Pak Arvian ya?”. Mbak Etty Rahmawati of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) and Sara Helms of Health In Harmony (HIH) introduced themselves. Mbak Etty has been helping to arrange my arrival in Sukadana, but that was my first time meeting her IRL. After helping me to get my bags, we walk to the parking lot where Pak Yusuf Hamdani, one of ASRI’s drivers was waiting to drive all of us to one of the ASRI staff housing, where I would be staying for the next five days.
I first learned about HIH and ASRI from Dr. Kinari Webb in February of 2014, at an event in Los Gatos, CA — a friend had invited me to take photos at the event. Dr. Webb discussed her work to save orangutans and rainforests in West Kalimantan, Borneo — see her TEDx talk here. I was particularly intrigued by her success in using radical listening to help ASRI come up with programs and solutions that work for the local communities — i.e. providing health and medical care and helping loggers find an alternative livelihood. I made some donations and started following Dr. Webb’s works.
This year, I decided to get involved a little bit more. I became an Ironwood, committing myself to donate monthly to HIH. I was on my three-month leave of absence and had already made a plan to travel southeast Asia and visit my family in Jakarta, Indonesia. I thought I should spend some time in Sukadana to learn more about their programs and see ASRI clinic.
I contacted HIH’s International Partnerships Manager, Amy Krzyzek to plan my visit. She connected me to Mbak Etty and Martini Morris, and the three of them helped me plan my itinerary — I was born and raised in Indonesia but had never been to the island of Borneo.
The newly built clinic is located in Sukadana, just south of the equator, in West Kalimantan province of Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. The beautiful townis located at the west edge of Gunung Palung National park, home of the Bornean orangutans. There’s a big mangrove forest where local tourists like to visit.
An organic farm and training center behind the clinic is used by Pak Muhammad Yusuf (Bang Jili), organic farming facilitator and Sukadana native, to grow vegetables, make organic fertilizers and train the program participants. The ASRI team also maintain a mini forest behind the farm, where they planted trees native to the national park to study and preserve the species.
A team of ASRI doctors, lead by Nurmilia Afriliani, MD (Dr. Nomi), provides affordable health and medical care to the community. The ASRI conservation team, lead by Jackson Helms, PhD, occupy a bunkhouse next to the clinic, working on ASRI programs aiming at stopping illegal loggers and help them find an alternative sustainable livelihood. Monica R. Nirmala, DDS, the ASRI executive director, oversees both teams, their programs, and supporting staff from her office in the clinic.
The team meet daily at 8 am to give updates on their projects. Martini Morris, HIH’s Grants Manager who was also visiting Sukadana, and the ASRI team were gracious enough to take me to meet the local community as part of ASRI kitchen gardens and goat for widows programs. We also went to visit one of ASRI reforestation sites at Laman Satong, where I got a chance to go inside a rainforest, planted some trees, and tasted four(!) weaver ants — I blame Jackson for showing me how to eat them :-p.
Today, Health in Harmony posted my Humans of ASRI blog on their website, containing portraits of some of the heroes I met in Sukadana. These doctors, conservationists, and community members work to provide health care, prevent further deforestation, and restore one of the lungs of our planet while also improving the local economy.
I am glad I visited Sukadana. I met amazing people and made new friends. I am a proud supporter of HIH and ASRI. To learn more about them, including their Journey to Borneo and Goats for Widows programs, please visit their web sites at https://healthinharmony.org/ and http://www.alamsehatlestari.org/. I encourage you to learn more about HIH’s plan to scale and replicate its programs and join me in supporting their important work for healthy people and a healthy planet.
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Originally posted on LinkedIn
Credits: Trina Jones; Jackson Helms, PhD; Nurmilia Afriliani, MD; Monica R. Nirmala, DDS for proofreading my draft and fact-checking my story.
#alamsehatlestari #ASRI #healthinharmony #healthypeoplehealthyplanet #healthcare #planetaryhealth #rainforest #conservation
