Stories

Dr Ratni Palullungan is a fearless doctor, mother, and selfless volunteer providing sexual and reproductive healthcare to marginalized groups in fragile humanitarian settings.  Currently she is deployed with the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association’s (IPPA/PKBI) response team in Majene District, West Sulawesi, following a magnitude 6.2 earthquake which occurred in January 2021.   In an open diary, Dr Ratni shares what a day in the life looks like for a volunteer doctor providing care to those affected by the earthquake.   5.30 – 8.30am I get up quite early and have my quiet time (prayer), then I gather my dirty laundry. Currently, I live with other volunteer teams in a place called PKBI Post in Majene, and there is a cooking schedule for everyone. After prayers, chores and breakfast, I get my daughter ready for the day as she accompanies me to work temporarily. After that, the team and I prepare medical equipment and medicine for the day's humanitarian mission. 8.30 – 11am Today the first location is Maliaya Village Health Centre, in Malunda District, Majene. Here, I attend to and examine 25 pregnant women. The pregnant women, on average, get married at a fairly young age. There are definitely risks to their reproductive health. There is a 43-year-old mother who is currently pregnant with her 11th child. To limit health risks, we advise her on the various safe family planning options.   There is also a 38-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant. However, the size of her belly is very small for a woman in her third trimester. In fact, I initially thought that she was only four or five months pregnant. After I examined her, it turns out that she is categorized as a ‘malnourished’ pregnant woman. It is very unfortunate because she admitted that she eats food without paying attention to her nutrition intake. In fact, she tends to eat instant noodles. So I advised her to drink milk, eat only nutritious foods, and always taker her vitamins.  11am – 2pm After visiting Maliaya Village, I travelled to Kabiraan Village. This village was severely affected by the earthquake. Here, I walk around the evacuation camp, most of which is still occupied by displaced people in this post-earthquake period. Even under the evacuation tent, I continue to conduct health examinations for pregnant women.  Due to the large number of cases of young marriages in Kabiiran Village, the team and I decide to conduct counselling sessions for the teenagers here. I advise the teenagers to get to know the risks that might occur to their reproductive health if they marry too young.  2 – 4pm The health volunteer team and I are finally able to take the time for lunch. We have our lunch near the beach, and get to enjoy local seafood as our menu. Enjoying the seafood while looking at the beautiful sea view is a precious time. I certainly won't forget this moment. 4 – 6pm We continue our journey to East Lombong Village. We have many elderly patients here. Yet interestingly, during one of the patients’ examination, there is one mother who wants to get the contraceptive implant. For me, this is quite a shock, given that we rarely find women in this village who want to do family planning. The mother admitted that she did not know much about the family planning program and has many children. She is grateful that the PKBI volunteer team and I came to their shelter camp for the health examination. 6pm The team and I decide to return to the PKBI Post. Today’s journey is quite tiring but there is a sense of pride and emotion for having carried out a humanitarian mission for teenage girls, mothers, the elderly and even toddlers who still stay in the shelter camp. 7 – 8pm At the PKBI Post, after cleaning and tidying up the medical equipment again for the next day’s program, I  prepare dinner for the team and assist my child with her studies. I am so grateful for each and every day that I am involved in this program. I feel encouraged to continue to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare to marginalized groups

Dr Ratni Palullungan is a fearless doctor, mother, and selfless volunteer providing sexual and reproductive healthcare to marginalized groups in fragile humanitarian settings.  Currently she is deployed with the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association’s (IPPA/PKBI) response team in Majene District, West Sulawesi, following a magnitude 6.2 earthquake which occurred in January 2021.   In an open diary, Dr Ratni shares what a day in the life looks like for a volunteer doctor providing care to those affected by the earthquake.   5.30 – 8.30am I get up quite early and have my quiet time (prayer), then I gather my dirty laundry. Currently, I live with other volunteer teams in a place called PKBI Post in Majene, and there is a cooking schedule for everyone. After prayers, chores and breakfast, I get my daughter ready for the day as she accompanies me to work temporarily. After that, the team and I prepare medical equipment and medicine for the day's humanitarian mission. 8.30 – 11am Today the first location is Maliaya Village Health Centre, in Malunda District, Majene. Here, I attend to and examine 25 pregnant women. The pregnant women, on average, get married at a fairly young age. There are definitely risks to their reproductive health. There is a 43-year-old mother who is currently pregnant with her 11th child. To limit health risks, we advise her on the various safe family planning options.   There is also a 38-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant. However, the size of her belly is very small for a woman in her third trimester. In fact, I initially thought that she was only four or five months pregnant. After I examined her, it turns out that she is categorized as a ‘malnourished’ pregnant woman. It is very unfortunate because she admitted that she eats food without paying attention to her nutrition intake. In fact, she tends to eat instant noodles. So I advised her to drink milk, eat only nutritious foods, and always taker her vitamins.  11am – 2pm After visiting Maliaya Village, I travelled to Kabiraan Village. This village was severely affected by the earthquake. Here, I walk around the evacuation camp, most of which is still occupied by displaced people in this post-earthquake period. Even under the evacuation tent, I continue to conduct health examinations for pregnant women.  Due to the large number of cases of young marriages in Kabiiran Village, the team and I decide to conduct counselling sessions for the teenagers here. I advise the teenagers to get to know the risks that might occur to their reproductive health if they marry too young.  2 – 4pm The health volunteer team and I are finally able to take the time for lunch. We have our lunch near the beach, and get to enjoy local seafood as our menu. Enjoying the seafood while looking at the beautiful sea view is a precious time. I certainly won't forget this moment. 4 – 6pm We continue our journey to East Lombong Village. We have many elderly patients here. Yet interestingly, during one of the patients’ examination, there is one mother who wants to get the contraceptive implant. For me, this is quite a shock, given that we rarely find women in this village who want to do family planning. The mother admitted that she did not know much about the family planning program and has many children. She is grateful that the PKBI volunteer team and I came to their shelter camp for the health examination. 6pm The team and I decide to return to the PKBI Post. Today’s journey is quite tiring but there is a sense of pride and emotion for having carried out a humanitarian mission for teenage girls, mothers, the elderly and even toddlers who still stay in the shelter camp. 7 – 8pm At the PKBI Post, after cleaning and tidying up the medical equipment again for the next day’s program, I  prepare dinner for the team and assist my child with her studies. I am so grateful for each and every day that I am involved in this program. I feel encouraged to continue to provide sexual and reproductive healthcare to marginalized groups

“The first time I met Chariette [a peer educator for the Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare] was at Sunday football, around four years ago. She was invited by the organizer to come and talk to us when the match was over. We were all men but she wasn’t intimidated and she handled the stupid jokes well.  We stayed in touch and then one day I realized I had an STI. It’s a little taboo and I didn’t want to talk about it. I bought some drugs at the local market but they didn’t have any effect. I called Chariette and we discussed what had happened. She told me to come to the CAMNAFAW clinic and I did, where I spoke about my problem and they gave me proper drugs to get rid of it. That day, I decided to become a peer educator myself. There are a lot of guys who are suffering but too scared to speak out. Above all, men are scared of talking about STIs.  I now work in schools and youth groups, especially sports teams. They will insist they don’t have anything wrong but every Sunday since then I have gone round the teams and chatted with them.  I speak about pregnancy as well. It’s the guys who push women to have sex without a condom and also to have an abortion afterwards. I help to raise awareness of why we have to protect ourselves. It’s hard to recruit people to become peer educators because we are volunteers. It’s not easy to persuade people to change their ways. The view from a lot of churches is very strict and centers on abstinence. The young men want to be macho.” Hervé Tchuigwa Djiya is a peer educator for the Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare (CAMNAFAW)

“Chariette was my neighbor. We lived next door to each other. She often organized group information sessions in the neighbourhood to talk about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and early pregnancy, and unintended pregnancies as well.  When I started attending her sessions I was in a bit of unstable relationship. My life was chaotic. My boyfriend didn’t like using protection and we told each other that as we loved each other we weren’t taking any risks. Once I caught something and I was itching a lot. My boyfriend told me that I must have caught it in a public toilet. I trusted him and I didn’t realize I could catch something. When I started listening to Chariette it opened my eyes and I realized I was running big risks. As we aren’t married and we are still studying, we shouldn’t have an unintended pregnancy. What would we do? She told me about sexually transmitted infections as well. I tried to talk to my boyfriend about it but he didn’t want to hear about it, especially about using condoms. I asked for a private session with Chariette for him, and she spoke to us both and he finally understood. Today we have a much more stable sex life and we aren’t running those risks anymore. He learned how to use a condom. After attending her sessions, I was able to save a friend with Chariette’s help. This friend tried to perform an abortion herself and she was bleeding everywhere. I remembered that Chariette told me about the Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare clinic, so I called her and asked how she could be admitted. She was able to receive post-abortion care but if I hadn’t known Chariette I don’t know what would have happened. I have brothers and I have helped them to change too. I’ve helped them to adopt a healthier sex life. There is HIV around and it’s scary.” Gertrude Zouakeu Noutcha, 29, is a student and peer educator for the Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare (CAMNAFAW)