MALARIA PERDHAKI, Mimika – The Indonesian Health Service Unity Association (Perdhaki) regularly provides malaria health education to the community in Mimika, Central Papua Province. This malaria education is conducted by Perdhaki, a social organization under the Caritas Timika Papua Foundation (YTCP) of the Timika Diocese, with the aim of breaking the chain of malaria transmission within the community.

Perdhaki is an association of Catholic health services in Indonesia, established on Thursday, July 27, 1972. Over the years, it has been actively involved in various health programs across Indonesia, including a malaria program in Mimika Regency.

Martinus Ngauk, the Head of the Malaria Program Sub-Sub Recipient (SSR) at Emanuel Mapurujaya Parish, explained that Perdhaki collaborates closely with the Mimika District Health Office in its service to the community. Within its operational structure, Perdhaki’s service area is divided into two parts, one of which is the Perdhaki SSR in the Santo Petrus Parish SP3 region. In this area, Perdhaki partners with several public health centers operating under regional public service agencies (BLUD), including Puskesmas Jileale, Puskesmas Kwamki Narama, Puskesmas Timika Jaya, Puskesmas Limau Asri, and Puskesmas Timika, to effectively deliver malaria-related health services to the local population.

Meanwhile, Perdhaki SSR at Emanuel Mapurujaya Parish covers a service area that includes malaria cadres and volunteers spread across 14 health centers (puskesmas). Among these are BLUD Pasar Sentral, BLUD Puskesmas Wania, BLUD Puskesmas Mapurujaya, Puskesmas Agimuga, Puskesmas Ayuka, as well as several areas located in mountainous and coastal regions. “Our cadres are distributed throughout villages and urban neighborhoods, including areas within the city, coastal regions, and the mountains,” Martinus explained to koranpapua.id in his office on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

Martinus explained that to provide education about healthy lifestyle habits, Perdhaki cadres go directly into community environments and schools. The community is encouraged to maintain environmental cleanliness by keeping areas free from trash, avoiding stagnant water, and always sleeping under mosquito nets at night. Besides face-to-face interactions, the cadres also make agreements with the visited communities to jointly conduct communal work (gotong royong) to clean up the environment together.

Because the best solution to eradicate malaria is by maintaining a clean environment, not by continuously consuming malaria medication, Perdhaki cadres focus on this preventive approach. In addition to raising awareness about the dangers of malaria mosquito bites and the importance of environmental cleanliness, the cadres also visit residents to conduct blood screening tests. This allows early detection of malaria cases, enabling timely treatment and helping to break the chain of transmission.

Residents who test positive for malaria receive supervised medication until the treatment is complete. This also includes monitoring of mosquito breeding hotspots and ensuring the proper use of mosquito nets. "So, if one person is diagnosed with malaria, everyone in the household must be screened, including neighbors, to find out whether the people around the house have been infected or not," he explained. All screening results and data on malaria cases found in the field are reported to the BLUD Community Health Centers (Puskesmas).

The data collected by the BLUD Community Health Centers (Puskesmas) is forwarded to the Health Office, while the data held by Perdhaki is sent to Perdhaki’s central office in Jakarta. “Perdhaki’s malaria cadres work under the supervision of their respective BLUD Puskesmas. This is because during their work, the cadres are accompanied by Health Workers (Nakes),” he explained. With the presence of accompanying Health Workers, the malaria cadres do not work alone, since the administration of malaria medication is only permitted by Health Workers. The role of the cadres in the field includes assisting with blood sampling, promoting healthy lifestyle habits, and encouraging community members to participate in communal clean-up activities.

Including regularly monitoring the cleanliness of the environment and providing education on the proper use of mosquito nets every month. Besides the cadres, Martinus explained that Perdhaki also formed malaria volunteers, who currently number only two. One volunteer coordinates with six community health centers (Puskesmas) in the SSR Paroki Santo Petrus SP3 area, and the other serves 14 Puskesmas in the SSR Paroki Emanuel Mapurujaya area. Both volunteers are tasked with visiting communities from village to village, neighborhood to neighborhood, down to RTs (neighborhood units), and even schools. In the field, the malaria volunteers provide health education to prevent malaria. After the socialization sessions, they proceed by creating commitments and agreements regarding the programs to be implemented in the following month.

In every activity, the volunteers collaborate with the village community, sub-districts, and neighborhood associations (RT). Likewise, in educational institutions, all school members participate. As a form of commitment to eradicate malaria, besides recruiting malaria cadres and volunteers, Perdhaki has also provided training to key figures in malaria eradication. These key figures are people considered influential in the community, such as village heads, community leaders, religious leaders, women, and traditional leaders.

With the presence of these key figures, it is expected that they can become drivers in raising awareness among residents about healthy lifestyles. It was explained that the key figures who participated in the training two months ago were taken from areas with high malaria case rates. Specifically, in the BLUD Mapurujaya area, these include the Head of Mwumare Village along with village officials, the Head of Wania Sub-district or the secretary, and traditional leaders. This approach aims to ensure that all key figures have the same understanding of how to handle malaria, while also becoming familiar with the cadres carrying out tasks in the field.

This news was previously published by Koran Papua. Link: https://koranpapua.id/2024/08/01/kader-dan-relawan-perdhaki-rutin-edukasi-kesehatan-malaria-untuk-masyarakat-mimika/