Filmmaker/Photographer - Check

We are fortunate to have a native Nola pal Jason Prowell, photographer and film maker, head over with us to shoot our scout mission in August. We are really excited about this, as he will bring to life the experience for those at home, and help with getting universities on board.

'Learn to Live' Begins

Hi, I hope you follow us on our journey to Indonesia this year, here is a little about our project 'Learn to Live'.

I met my friend Jordana Kaban 10 years ago, when I was living in New Orleans. We instantly bonded on a zest for life and the yearning to go to places exotic and to learn from a more eastern look on life. I spoke to her about my family in Indonesia; we said we would always visit there one day. Since our meeting in 1999, I have become and RN, Jordana an Emergency Medicine physician. With common interests in public health, particularly in developing nations, Jordana and I developed the idea for ‘Learn to live’. Jordana has been a involved in an established organization called ‘Himalayan Health Exchange’, which has been successful at bringing healthcare to remote regions of the Indian Himalayans, while providing an educational and cultural experience for health care students and those in training. Looking at this program and others, we thought “why can’t we do something similar in Indonesia.”

At the beginning of 2011 decided that it was time to incorporate our love of South East Asia, our passion for healthcare and change and create a program that helps as well as educates. The program will consist of a team of doctors, nurses, and medical/nursing students from Australia and the US going to North Suluwesi and over two-three weeks setting up clinics in three different regions. At these clinics we will provide basic health care, address preventative measures, and attempt to establish needed follow-up. 

The main goal will be to provide access to health care in remote regions that are in most need. In doing this, however, we also plan to provide an educational experience for nursing/medical students from University in the USA and Australia. The students will then use these clinical experiences as credit or hours or as an elective towards either their nursing or medical degrees. The students would pay to go on this trip, which would fund their food, accommodation, and travel expenses, as well as help provide money for medication and supplies, etc. Obviously there will be more expenses, and we plan to do fundraising to help support the costs.

Our main objective at the moment is determining the health care needs of the area, so that we can start to develop a more focused plan. We need to figure out which villages/towns we will be visiting, what their needs are in that specific area, and how we are going target their needs. Of course there will also be extensive work done to determine details including traveling to these regions, accommodations, translators, setting up clinic sites, transporting supplies and medications, etc. I intend to go there in summer 2011 and scout the region to see how we can make this project work. I have a meeting scheduled with the Health minister of the region and also 2 doctors from the region that want to help get Learn to Live off the ground.


Follow us!
Yanti