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We envision the people of North Sulawesi living long, healthy, productive lives with the support of reliable healthcare when needed. For our students, we envision them having a fulfilling, enriching, experience that will enhance their future careers in healthcare around the world. The mission of Learn to Live (LTL) is to provide primary health care and early intervention to the people of North Sulawesi who are unable to travel or to pay for initial healthcare support. A secondary goal is to provide a learning environment for US and Australian medical and nursing students. The idea of LTL is rooted in a passion for North Sulawesi life, and respect for their culture.
The Problem
I have been visiting the North Sulawesi region since I was two years old. In an area rife with poverty and inhospitable living conditions I was amazed how the community seems to take it all in stride, rarely wavering from their positive attitude and outlook on life. Being exposed at such a young age to the tight-knit, family-driven culture of the “Sulawesi” people, their positive attitude has echoed inside of me throughout my life. Recently my visits have been met with despair. With my own eyes I have seen 30-year-old men and women die from complications due to diabetes, heart disease, and stomach ulcers. I have seen others live their lives with untreated conditions, without much knowledge of how to sustain a healthier lifestyle. I have seen many other indigenous people live in suffering with treatable illnesses, simply because they do not know how to manage a healthy lifestyle. I continuously ask myself are these issues occurring due to lack of access to proper health care and education or is this simply a reality of North Sulawesi way of life?
Our Solution
We envision a program that will consist of a team of doctors, nurses, and medical/nursing students from Australia and the US who travel to North Sulawesi, and over a three-week period, set up three healthcare clinics in three different regions. At these clinics we will provide basic health care, address preventative measures, and attempt to establish pathways for needed follow-up visits. For those patients with signs of a more serious health concern, such as a heart murmur, we would initiate follow up care with local health facilities.
Our goal is to provide access to much needed health care in remote regions. In doing this, we also plan to provide an educational experience for nursing/medical students from universities in the USA and Australia. The students may be able to use these clinical experiences as credit or hours towards either their nursing or medical degrees.
Learn to Live begins – August 2011 Our first trip, scheduled for August 2011, will be a planning and scouting excursion. We have meetings scheduled with the Health Minister of North Sulawesi Dr Maxi Rondonuwu, the Governor of North Sulawesi Dr. Sinyo Harry Sarundajang and also two medical doctors from the region that want to help get Learn to Live off the ground. With their support, guidance and insight we hope we can develop a strong foundation for the Learn to Live program. Whilst we are up in North Sulawesi we will determine which villages/towns we will be visiting, what their medical needs are in that specific area, and how we are going to address those medical needs. This trip will allow us to develop a strategy for traveling to these remote regions, selecting accommodations, translators, setting up clinic sites, transporting supplies and medications. From this initial scouting trip we believe we will gain key information to help us understand the immediate health care needs of the area, so that we can develop a more focused strategy for future trips.
Learn to Live team: August 2011 The trip in August will consist of three people and myself. These three people have been chosen based on their positive outlook, innovative ideas and hardworking initiative that they can bring to ‘Learn to Live’. Jason Prowell is a native of New Orleans, he is a filmmaker who, upon hearing of our project wanted to use his talent in film to help and promote Learn to live. Jason will document our time in North Sulawesi and with his footage, construct a documentary that will be valuable with our project pitch to universities when we return to the United States. Karel Turang is from the region of North Sulawesi and currently resides in Melbourne Australia. Karel has a command of the language and will be essential in our negotiations. Karel also holds an extensive background in education and community projects within Australia. Sergio Padilla grew up along the US / Mexico border and earned Bachelor of Architecture from Tulane University in 2003. The challenges and opportunities of Post-Katrina New Orleans has allowed Sergio to apply his passion for cultural and community development to the rebuilding efforts taking place in New Orleans. Having worked as a project manager for architectural firms for several years, he is looking forward to applying his life and professional experiences towards the Learn to Live experience. Dr Jordana Kaban is unable to go with us on our trip scheduled for August due to the birth of her first son, however she will be in touch daily with our progress and joining our meetings online to discuss the progress of the trip.
Our Story & Why You Should Support Us
My name is Yanti Turang, I am from Australia and currently live in New Orleans. I am 32 years old, and with a world of experience in travel I want to give something back to the world, as it has given me so much. I met my friend Jordana Kaban 11 years ago. We instantly bonded over our zest for life, the yearning to go to exotic destinations, and to learn from a more eastern outlook on life. I spoke to her about my family in Indonesia and we said we would always visit there one day. Since our meeting in 2000 I have become a Registered Nurse and Jordana has become an emergency medicine doctor in New York City. With common interests in public health, particularly in regards to developing nations, Jordana and I envisioned the idea for ‘Learn to Live’. Jordana had been involved in an organization called ‘Himalayan Health Exchange’, which has successfully brought healthcare to remote regions of the Indian Himalayans while also providing an educational and cultural experience for health care students in training. Looking at this program, and other similar ones, we asked ourselves, “why can’t we do something similar in Indonesia?”