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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Indonesia Clinic Discounts Healthcare for Conservation-Minded Communities
Getting access to adequate health care can be difficult in many parts of rural Indonesia, a necessity that often involves long journeys to overcrowded clinics. And once there, many patients often find they cannot afford the costs of treatment and medication.
Take Sukadana for instance, a dusty village outside Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan. Infrastructure1 is poor, water is increasingly scarce and the supply of electricity is sporadic2.
Tuberculosis3, malaria4 and whooping5 cough are common and can have a detrimental6 affect on poor villagers unable to access treatment.
Often people here must travel more than two hours on bumpy7 roads to reach the district’s only hospital. But even there resources are thin. Doctors often spend little time with patients, which can result in misdiagnosis.
Ira, a local resident, says she prefers not to go to the hospital because of the lack of coordination8 and personal care.
She says if there is an emergency they only have one room and the patients dance around each other. The staff are not well trained and they do not know the proper doses of medicine to give out. She does not like, she says.
To help provide better care to the remote district, American doctor Kinari Webb helped co-found Alam Sehat Lestari, or ASRI.
The non-profit organization uses its clinic to provide high-quality, affordable9 health care to an area that, until recently, had the worst health record in the region.
The clinic allows patients to pay through non-monetary means, such as woven baskets, seedlings10 or labor11 exchanges. Because of low literacy rates, Eka, the pharmacist, draws symbols on prescription12 labels: a sun means morning; a moon, night.
When the medication is ready, the cashier, Nani, who goes by one name, explains the payment procedure.
She says the medicine is Rp25,000, the doctor consultation13 Rp5,000, so the total is Rp30,000, or about $3.50. She says that here you can pay with baskets, weavings, seedlings. She says the clinic will also accept things from your garden.
The barter14 payment system is part of ASRI’s dual15 mission, to combine health care with conservation.
People in West Kalimantan have long depended on the forests for their livelihoods16. But rising timber prices have been a boon17 for illegal loggers. Webb says most communities do value the forests, but often illegal logging is their only way of earning an income.
“Even if you know that if you protect the forest that’s good for your long-term well-being18, if you’re short-term well-being, like you have to get health care and you have to be able to pay for it, you’re willing to do illegal logging to do that," Webb says.
To increase awareness19, patients get conservation education as they wait to register at the clinic. Many of ASRI’s 70 staff also work in the field, helping20 communities build alternative livelihoods, like organic farming.
As an incentive21 not to log, ASRI provides discounted health care.
Each month someone from the organization visits the surrounding villages to determine if they are actively22 logging or burning land within the national park. Communities that do not participate in illegal logging pay about 40 percent less than those that do.
ASRI’s clinic is small, filled with the constant hum of a generator23.
A nurse calms four-year-old Amelia, who was recently in a motorbike accident. Later, Doctor Kinari Webb will see a baby with whooping cough and a mother and daughter suffering from tuberculosis.
A program the organization started in May identifies forest guardians24 who work with the community to curb25 illegal logging. One of the guardians says he entered the program because ASRI helped his son recover from tuberculosis.
Webb says people were skeptical26 when ASRI first starting operating. They preferred to go to the hospital, and few saw the benefits of the incentives27 the clinic was offering. Now, people happily share stories about the clinic’s services.
Amelia’s mother is one of them. She has been coming to the clinic since her daughter was eight months old. She says the treatment is good, and so is the medicine.
Doctor Webb smiles when she hears that.
“Health care is an incredible key," she says. "Everyone knows we care, and we’re helping save their lives.”
Webb says a healthy planet is essential for healthy humans, and the organization’s goal is to break the link between the high costs of health care and the need to cut down the forests.
1 infrastructure | |
n.下部构造,下部组织,基础结构,基础设施 | |
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2 sporadic | |
adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular;分散的 | |
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3 tuberculosis | |
n.结核病,肺结核 | |
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4 malaria | |
n.疟疾 | |
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5 whooping | |
发嗬嗬声的,发咳声的 | |
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6 detrimental | |
adj.损害的,造成伤害的 | |
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7 bumpy | |
adj.颠簸不平的,崎岖的 | |
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8 coordination | |
n.协调,协作 | |
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9 affordable | |
adj.支付得起的,不太昂贵的 | |
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10 seedlings | |
n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 ) | |
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11 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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12 prescription | |
n.处方,开药;指示,规定 | |
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13 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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14 barter | |
n.物物交换,以货易货,实物交易 | |
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15 dual | |
adj.双的;二重的,二元的 | |
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16 livelihoods | |
生计,谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 ) | |
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17 boon | |
n.恩赐,恩物,恩惠 | |
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18 well-being | |
n.安康,安乐,幸福 | |
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19 awareness | |
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智 | |
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20 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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21 incentive | |
n.刺激;动力;鼓励;诱因;动机 | |
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22 actively | |
adv.积极地,勤奋地 | |
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23 generator | |
n.发电机,发生器 | |
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24 guardians | |
监护人( guardian的名词复数 ); 保护者,维护者 | |
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25 curb | |
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制 | |
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26 skeptical | |
adj.怀疑的,多疑的 | |
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27 incentives | |
激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 ); 刺激; 诱因; 动机 | |
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