Reaching the untouchables

By TABITHA NERO
INDIAN leader and peace activist Mahatma Gandhi once said “my fight against untouchability is a fight against the impure in humanity”.
His idea was to bring equality in the Indian caste system. The same can be said about a small but efficient non-government organisation called Touching The Untouchables (TTU) in Goroka, Eastern Highlands.
It wants to see health care provided in rural areas be comparable to what is provided in the urban centres.
It has been working in the eight districts of Eastern Highlands to educate the people about leading a healthy lifestyle in the villages and reaching those who are “untouched” by Government services.
Heading TTU is Esther Silas from Henganofi district who had spent five years as a community health worker and supervisor for community health education programme, and five years with the Evangelical Brotherhood Church (EBC) health services in the province.
Silas says she was inspired by her late father Silas Kaio Jarionta to start the TTU.
“My father believed in the ability of the church in changing lives of people to become good citizens,” she said.
“He supported EBC, through infrastructure and he was able to affect the communities positively through the EBC network in the province.”
Her ally and co-founder Jessie Irie, who graduated from the Divine Word University with a diploma in environmental health science, joined after being inspired by Sila’s idea.
“Our vision is to empower individuals using local knowledge and resources to develop holistically transformed communities conducive to self-reliance, peace, harmony, and free from all forms of illness, abuse and discrimination,” Irie said.
Thus, the birth of TTU in November 2008 – and it is been growing ever since.
It is working with the Eastern Highlands provincial health division, Unicef, Oxfam, Care International and Australian volunteers to prevent diseases through education.
The TTU trains volunteers in villages picked by community leaders to practise health and hygiene standards using local knowledge and resources. Their share their knowledge with the community.
TTU also trains village birth attendants to attend to pregnant women and other volunteers to advocate on family planning.
“There has been a lot of reports of women dying from child birth in rural parts of the country. We hope to reduce the statistics in the province,” Irie said.
Silas says the most rewarding experience is the completion of three gravity-fed water supply projects completed in three months in three villages along Kompri valley of Henganofi district.
“The highlight of this project was the ability of these three villages – Saviza, Vegos and Jurinofi – to raise K43,000 within three months as part of their 10 per cent contribution.”
Irie says his most rewarding experience is the launching of 12 health-promoting villages all at once on in remote Andakombi of the Obura Wonenara district.
“Also having Australian volunteers working and building the organisation’s capacity since 2014 has been really helpful and had been a really good experience,” he said.
The TTU team watched the people of Andakombi and Marawaka using sticks and spades to construct a road to Goroka town. The people also used bamboo stems to convey drinking water to the village from a source five kilometres away.
Silas says the main challenge is funding.
“We use our own savings to run TTU’s administrative and programme activities. We have been stepping in like this for the past eight years. But we’ve had help from family members and friends of Richard Barcham, Des Symes and Mary Clancy, three Australian volunteers who have been attached with us,” Iriesaid.
Irie says TTU has developed to be a competent, innovative, competitive and respectable development partner to the Government.