On 16 July 2021, the “Praktek Mandiri” health center in Lombok was officially inaugurated. It has been a long time coming since Rani Eka from Wadah Community in Lombok dreamed of opening up a health center/clinic to provide health services to the people in her community.
DREAMS DO COME TRUE
“Opening up this health center has been envisioned from long ago and we have planned this from the year before from providing simple healthcare services by going from home to home, to slowly fulfilling the various requirements, then we eventually added more health facilities through the support from Wadah Foundation; we renovated the building and finally, we dealt with the administrative requirements at the Public Health Office and the Indonesian National Nurses Association,” Rani explained, as she looked back on the journey of finally achieving her long-time dream.
BUILDING THEIR DREAM
For a while, Rani wondered where she would find a suitable place for her to open up a health facility that would be able to accommodate patients within the community. “At first we were thinking of where to find the right location but by God’s grace, my parents gave us access to the ground floor area of their house for us to use as our private practice,” Rani gushed. “After renovating the area, we processed the administrative requirements and recommendation letters from the Banyumulek Public Health Center, the Indonesian National Nurses Association and the Indonesian Doctors Association in West Lombok. After submitting all the required documents to the Public Health Office, on 29th June 2021, they sent surveyors to inspect starting from the location up to the equipment and tools that would be used. Finally, this 6th July 2021, the permit was released.”
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
From the get-go, Rani knew that if she were to hope to provide a viable and reliable health service to her community, she would not be able to do it alone. Filled with much confidence and motivation, Rani invited one of her high school friends, Dr. Surya Meka Novita Sari, to collaborate and open up a private practice. Together, they are now able to provide a more comprehensive health care service to the people in their community. Serviced by 1 permanent doctor (and 2 substitute doctors if the permanent doctor is unavailable), 1 nurse and 1 administrative staff, the health facility is able to cater to almost 30 patients per day. They have also managed to cooperate with the Islamic Relief Indonesia to conduct medical check-ups for their fostered children – abandoned children and orphans.
ONLY GETTING STARTED
Now that everything is up and running, there are surely challenges that come with it. The number of people who come to get check-ups has overwhelmed the limited staff due to insufficient medicines and medical supplies. A pharmacy has offered to provide required medicines for 1 month for a price of Rp. 3 million which they gladly agreed upon for it was reasonably priced. However, it has taken Rani a while to collect the required amount. Aside from this, they are also still in need of certain medical equipment like wheelchairs and hospital stretcher beds. Despite such setbacks, the whole team is still motivated and enthusiastic to pursue their passion of providing health services to the people in need.
If you wish to support their endeavor or know anyone who may be willing to help out, you may reach out to us at info@wadahfoundation.or.id or you may channel your donations through:
Bank Mandiri KCP Midplaza
Yayasan Wadah Titian Harapan
122 000 493 6590 (IDR)
122 000 6986 700 (USD)
Swift code : BMRIIDJA
or via Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/wadahfoundation