Sumba Foundation clinics have a reputation as being the best in the area and now we find that many people are actually walking, often well over a mile, right past the government clinics to be treated at ours. Dramatic improvements in the people’s health are now clearly visible throughout the large area that our network of clinics serves.

Building more clinics, staffed and managed by the Foundation, will continue expanding the reach of our community health and malaria project services to areas that still have none. This year we plan to build and operate two new clinics bringing our health services to thousands of people who desperately need it.

In the remote areas of Sumba there are no clinics within a half day's walk. The government clinics are dilapidated and none have reliable medical supplies or equipment. It really is a desperate situation.

In June 2007, we opened our third clinic that we built and staffed. A fourth clinic, built and supplied by us, is staffed with government nurses. These clinics have been strategically placed about two to three miles apart to allow for reasonable access for the sick coming from villages nearby.

We employ 14 Indonesian nurses at our clinics and we have an ongoing training program supervised by foreign nurses and doctors that are working with us to improve the diagnostic and treatment skills of our medical team.

Next year we will build our own clinics adjacent to already existing government clinics. We will need to employ and train more nurses to staff these new clinics. They in turn will need motorcycles to be able to work, and in the clinics more medicines will be required.

We have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sumbanese government allowing The Sumba Foundation to construct, staff and manage its own clinics. As we move out beyond our present borders new clinics will be needed to facilitate the success of our overall health program.