環(huán)球英語(yǔ) — 753：Indonesian Health Care and the Environment
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Welcome to Spotlight, I’m Liz Waid.
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And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
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In a small village on the island of Borneo a man walks into a health center. He has problems with his kidneys. After he receives treatment, he must pay for the services. But this man does not pay his bill with money. Instead, he pays with manure, the waste from animals. Today’s Spotlight is on this medical center and the new way it uses health care to protect the environment.
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In 1993, Kinari Webb came to Borneo. She was still finishing her schooling at university. Borneo is in Indonesia. It is famous for its large beautiful forests, and the animals that live in them. This is why Webb came to Borneo. She was studying orangutans in the Gunung Palunk National Park.
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Orangutans are a kind of ape, an animal that looks like a person covered in orange hair. Orangutans get their name from two Indonesian words. They mean “person of the forest”. Webb was studying these animals. The forests where the orangutans live were being destroyed. Companies were cutting down the trees illegally. They then sold an oil from the trees to people around the world. But the orangutans depend on the forests to live. Cutting down the forests threatened the orangutans.
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Webb wanted to protect the orangutans. She wanted to protect the forests. But while she was studying, she saw many people who also lived in these forests. These people were very poor. Once, she met a local man who had cut his hand. He was very worried about this small cut. Webb suddenly understood that any injury could be very dangerous for people in the forest. If a person did not get medical care, their injury could become infected and that person could die.
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In many of these villages, it was difficult to receive any medical care. Webb wanted to help these people. So when she went back to the United States, Webb started studying medicine. In 2005 she returned to Indonesia. She wanted to start a health center for the people living deep in the forest. She searched for a year to find the best place.
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She decided to open the health center on the border of the Gunung Palung National Park. The people in this area needed health care. The people suffered from the diseases like tuberculosis and malaria. The nearest hospital was seven hours away. And the area was in a large undamaged forest. She called the health center “Alam Sehat Lestari” or ASRI. In Indonesia, this means “healthy and everlasting nature.”
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The center has three medical exam rooms, a room for treating teeth, and many rooms for medical tests. In the first nine months ASRI treated three thousand people. Webb and her staff also travel to different communities in the forest. They provide many health services, like eye glasses to improve sight, and mosquito nets to cover people sleeping at night. These nets can prevent malaria.
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Webb says that poverty plays a big role in the health of the people in the area. She says that when health care costs too much, the people do not receive it. But the ASRI center does not provide health care for free. Webb believes that people should pay for health care. But they should pay in ways that they are able to pay. The health center uses a system of health credits. People can pay for health services in many ways. They can clean the health center, or help clean clothes. They can even pay with animal waste.
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This animal waste is used to feed plants in a small farm near the center. The plants in this farm are grown without the use of harmful chemicals. Before, villagers would cut down areas of the forest and then use that land to grow food. But the land only produced food for a few years. That is why Webb and her staff are teaching new ways to grow food as well.
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The village leaders are learning about organic farming. They use animal waste, plant waste, and egg shells to add minerals to the soil. This helps the plants grow. Srikandi Ase is one of these village leaders.
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“In the first three years when you open the land from the forest and add chemicals, it is very good. But every year after that, production goes down and down. Some of these fields are used twenty years or more. They are not productive. Our old people, our honoured elders, they are the ones who cut down the forests. They are seeing the bad effects on their grandchildren. That is why we are so happy with this training. We are learning to do something about it.”
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The village leaders care for the forest by using these new farming methods, but they also help new trees to grow in the forest. They do this by growing seedlings, or young trees. Webb works with local people to plant these new trees in areas where the forest has been destroyed. In this way, the forest can grow again.
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Webb cares strongly about the health of the people but she also cares about the forest and the animals living there. She knows that when the forest is damaged, so are the lives of the people living in the area. In areas without trees, there are more insects carrying disease. Farm land in damaged forests is not as healthy.
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Webb developed a way to help the forest and help the health of the people. ASRI encourages communities to become “green”. This means that the communities help to prevent illegal logging. If they do this for a month, then they get one month of free transport to the health center. They also get to pay less for health services.
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No one is ever denied health care at the ASRI center. If they need help, they will get it. But Webb hopes that these offers will encourage the people to care for the forest. The forests and the orangutans are still at risk. Illegal logging happens all over Indonesia. The homes of the animals are being destroyed. But Kinari Webb believes that if she can work with the native people in Borneo, she can help fight against this damage.
