Our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, is strongly suggesting that missions be a priority in our church work and service. Guided by the 8 MDGs, the Millennium Development Goals Subcommittee at St. Stephen's has selected to support a worthy 501(c)3 non-profit organization called Health In Harmony, Inc. Their work is inspired by the recognition that global health for all depends on linking human and environmental health at the local level.
Mission: Health in Harmony supports an innovative program in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, that provides access to high-quality, affordable health care through partnership with local communities, integrating essential medical care with environmental protection strategies for the threatened rainforest. Theirs is a special partnership with people in the 38 rural villages surrounding Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP). The Park protects the area's lowland rainforest habitat for one of the last breeding populations of orangutans in the world. However, illegal logging, poaching, and mining continually threaten this fragile natural resource and the watershed it provides to the region's communities. Health In Harmony, working with the Bureau of GPNP, has designed a system using health care discounts as an incentive for local people to protect the Park. In addition, families can pay for health care by providing labor on ecologically-friendly, health promoting projects such as an organic farm and reforestation activities, starting with a seedling nursery.
Health In Harmony is responding to the health and community development needs of one of Indonesia's poorest provinces. The average income is $13 a month, less than the WHO's definition of extreme poverty at $1/day. The majority of children have never been vaccinated and the region is a "hot spot" for malaria and TB. The program Director is Dr. Kinari Webb (pictured here), an honors graduate of Yale Medical School and a board-certified Family Practitioner, who speaks fluent Indonesian. In July 2007, Dr. Webb opened HIH's medical clinic in Sukadana, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by government officials and about 200 people. She and Antonia Gorog, Ph.D. (The Environmental Programs Director) are the only Westerners, besides the volunteer Board of Directors in the United States. The rest of the program staff is composed of Indonesians, 2 doctors, nurses, a dentist, a pharmacy assistant, an organic farm manager, and a community environmental coordinator who have chosen to serve the very poor.
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Durham selected this program for its MDG project and has raised over $4,000 to date. Some of the funds are designated to support the purchase and free distribution of family-sized treated mosquito nets that will be given out by the clinic for the prevention of malaria. If other churches in the Diocese would like to join St. Stephen's, the address for donations is Health In Harmony, 6114 La Salle Ave. Suite 752, Oakland, CA 94611. For more information go to healthinharmony.org.
