It has been reported that a huge 15% of the Special Autonomy budget for West Papua is allocated to the health sector. However, till today, public health services haven’t shown enough improvement and people are feeling lesser cared for by the government.

The total number of institutions for health services in Papua is very small, with few medical staff and a severe lack of much needed medical supplies. This has caused an acutely high rate of maternal death, and a sky-rocketing, uncontrollable number of persons infected with disease causing mass death.

Featured in ‘Save The Karon‘, one of the eight videos in Papuan Voices II, is the priest Hans Mambrasar, who has for decades served the Karon tribe living in eight villages around the Tambraw mountain, Papua Barat. On one occassion, when the village of Jokbijoker was inflicted by a deadly disease that killed dozens, Hans had to walk for days to bring people over to another village where local health services were located.

Hans has repeatedly asked the local government to build local health centers in these villages and to provide the human resources to operate them. But even up till the time this film was produced, his requests remain unanswered.

Find out more about Hans and his work for the Karon in ‘Save The Karon’ at papuanvoices.net.