How it started
It was all started back in 1993, the newly formed Rotary Club of Bali Taman was very excited to create a long-term sustainable project that can be the pride of the club. The idea for a mobile clinic was submitted by a member of the Rotary Club of Bali Taman named dr. Inne Susanti. A doctor who cares about women’s health, who has conducted several studies on women’s reproductive health in Bali long before she joined the Rotary Club.
The Women’s Health Mobile Clinic is a pioneer of mobile clinic in Bali, which has become an example for other institutions. Why did Rotary Club of Bali Taman choose for women? Because at that time all members of Bali Taman were women, and all of them had one vision to create a unique, specific and unprecedented health service. Rotary Club of Bali Taman wanted to be a pioneer in providing services to women in Bali, especially those in rural areas that are far from health services.
It was Makiko Iskandar, Bali Taman’s charter member, who later succeeded in bringing representatives from the Rotary Club of Hiroshima East – Japan, District 2710 to sponsor the project. Not long after, this project began to be taken seriously and the club established formulation team on October 11, 1994. The team meetings were conducted every Saturday and continued until the end of 1995.
The proposal took 3 years to finally be approved in 1996. Because the funds required was quite large, it’s submitted to the Rotary Matching Grant. The Rotary Foundation (TRF) agreed to the proposal and granted Matching Grant #5869 with international sponsor Rotary Club Hiroshima East & Rotary Club Yamaguci, District 2710, with the amount of USD 100,000.
Rotary Club of Bali Taman began implementing the project by purchasing a bus that would become a mobile clinic. Due to Rotary regulations that does not allow a club to own assets, Rotary Club of Bali Taman members decided to establish Yayasan Sehati foundation, chaired by Ni Nyoman Nilawati (now titled as Past District Governor of district 3420).
The inauguration of the Women’s Health Mobile Clinic was held at Gedung Jaya Sabha and was inaugurated by the Governor of Bali Province at that time, Prof. Ida Bagus Oka on September 3, 1997. On that same day WHMC immediately carried out its first activity in Banjar Blangsinga, Saba Village, Blahbatuh – Gianyar which was led directly by Rtn dr. Inne Susanti as the head of the medical team.
Every year the mobile clinic requires a lot of operational costs. Bali Taman members strived to raise funds, both from sponsors and from their own members who donate at every regular club meeting which called Sunshine Box. The largest funding received by the Rotary Club of Bali Taman for the project is from District 2710 Japan, brought by PDG Tsutsui and WCS Chairman Rtn Yaotani. PDG Tsutsui is a WHMC observer from the time the project was founded until the end of his life. The total amount of the endowment fund reached 1 billion rupiah which was later deposited and the interest used for WHMC operations.
District 2710 did not stop there and they again contributed funds in 2004 by making WHMC a Centennial 100 years Rotary project. Together with Past District Governor Association in Japan, the donation reach to 5 million Yen. In the same year The Rotary Foundation approved the WHMC Operational Matching Grant # 53262 for the procurement of Cryo Surgery machines and microscope , sponsored by the Rotary Club of Southbank, District 9800 Australia at the amount of USD 7,286.
The sponsorship of Rotary Club of Southbank Australia continued, thanks to Past President Ni Made Asri who maintained good international relations with them, resulting donations for 3 consecutive years from 2009 to 2011 for the WHMC bus operations.
At the end of 2012, Rotary Club of Bali Taman began discussing the replacement of the old bus with a new one because the bus was no longer in prime condition. It was PDG Tsutsui from District 2710 who finally giving his personal donation of 5 million Yen, and together with 18 members of RC Hisroshima East they added 210,000 Yen.
On February 14, 2014, the new WHMC bus was inaugurated at Ayodya Restaurant – Sanur, with a license plate number DK 9098 AF. The inauguration was attended by several members from RC Hiroshima East.
In 2016-2017 Rotary Club of Bali Taman submitted a Global Grant called Early Detection of Cervical Cancer – GG # 1635729. This grant was also sponsored by RC Southbank Australia, and was approved in May 2017 with a fund of USD 37,500. The Global Grant was used to purchase sterilizers, lamps for patient observation and WHMC operations with a target of 156 visits.
The WHMC activity for the Global Grant was only intensively carried out in June 2017, where visits were made in 2 to 3 locations per week. Yayasan Sehati foundation also collaborated with 3 additional doctors, one of which comes from PKBI (Indonesian Family Planning Association). The global grant implementation coincided with the government program of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono at that time, which was forwarded to the provincial government of Bali, namely Gebyar IVA Test and SADANIS. Hence WHMC supported the program and assisted the government by providing 1,000 sets of disposable tools for IVA testing needs for the Balinese women.
WHMC and sunshine box are still running until the end of 2019, but in early 2020 due to pandemic, WHMC operations was suspended for a while to help the government reduce the transmission of the disease. During pandemic time, WHMC team updated its SOP with a strict process to bring it back into operation.
After more than 2 years non-operational, Rotary Club of Bali Taman managed to run the project again with another Global Grant funding – GG#2118788 in 2022. The bus is currently up and running to serve the targetted recipients of 2.000 women in Bali.
WHMC Committee in Rotary Club of Bali Taman year by year
What it does
Women’s Health Mobile Clinic service was carefully designed to serve women in Bali with maximum impact of preventing cervical cancer and/or breast cancer. In general the clinic provide cervical cancer screening for free, whether using Papsmear method and/or Acetic Acid Visual Screening. However that is not only what it does. It also give education of reproductive organs, hygiene and other relating issues to their patient. Cervical cancer can not be prevented only with screening, but also to educate the women on how to keep their reproductive organ healthy and clean at all time.
Many women in remote areas of Bali didn’t get a good education in general, let alone education about hygiene and their health. Many of them claim too busy to go to healthcare facilities, not until they feel something is wrong with their body. Some were just care less about their health because their priority was more to what food they can serve on the table for their kids. These women need a personal approach and to be attended in their comfort zone. WHMC can give this previlege to them, as we are the one who come and visit them directly.
In every visits, the medical team will conduct the following :
- Visit preparation – Prior to the visit to villages or community, the team would communicate with the applicant to inform what are the terms and conditions of the service. Often the applicant already prepare list of patients that will attend.
- Anamnesis – Once the bus arrived to the location, usually in the community hall of the village, WHMC medical team would call each patient to get their data and general health state.
- Education – WHMC doctor will conduct education and group discussion to all patients at once. Further discussion or one on one consultation is conducted inside the bus.
- Cancer Screening – Each patient will be called to come inside the bus to get their free screening. During this session each patient get a chance to speak to the doctor privately about their health and complaint.
- Reference – If WHMC doctor find that the patient need some medication, he or she will then give free medication prepared by Rotary Club of Bali Taman. On heavier cases, the doctor would give reference letter to the patient to go to the nearest hospital or healthcare facilities to get further help on their condition.
- Follow up visit – If the screening conducted with Papsmear method, the bus would visit them again to give and read the lab result for them one by one. However if the screening conducted with Acetic Acid Visual Screening, then they will get the result in minutes after the screening is conducted. The last method is more popular to be used recently as it can cover more patients in particular period of time and budget.
Get involved
Rotary Club of Bali Taman open their arms wide to anyone who would like to involve in this great service. You can get involved by :
- Volunteer on the field – Contact Bali Taman by email or by phone to ask for their WHMC visit schedules. If any matches your free time, then come to help on the field. You can be a great help on ensuring the step by step process conducted smoothly. Making sure all patient is taking care of. Or better yet, while the doctor is busy in the bus, you can entertain the waiting patient with some entertainment or more education. If you are a doctor or a health practitioner, you can get involved further and regularly with WHMC, as we do need a ready medical team in weekly basis.
- Direct donation – Come to Rotary Club of Bali Taman’s regular meeting which is usually held every tuesday, twice a month. You can state your donation there by putting in to the Sunshine Box that they would pull out in the middle of the meeting and pass on to all meeting attendant. Other way is to contact Bali Taman and you can transfer the fund directly to their fund raising account.
