Rote Island Clinic Update

At the end of February, we wrapped up our campaign for the Puskesmas clinic on Rote Island. The community was in need of medical equipment and our partner on the ground, Mercy Huts, set up a campaign to raise funds for this clinic, while asking us to come alongside. With your help and support we were able to bless the clinic with funds that came in more handy than expected. We ran this campaign before Covid-19 was largely on the international radar and it turned out that the timing was extremely helpful.

Note from Mercy Huts co-founder Matt Thistlewaite:

“With the help of the staff at our friends and our own pocket rocket Litron there were 100+ masks and hospital wear per day coming out of an adhoc supply co that was created in response to the pandemic. Hospital gowns and plastic aprons were also made in the village and now the local puskesmas (clinic) is a lot more prepared than it was, as prepared as it's ever been. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who supported the Groundswell Aid clinic fundraiser we were even able to supply 7 large sized cylinders of oxygen.

We wanted to help as much as we could by supplying not only the clinic but all community members with at least one face mask while this pandemic blows through so each village chose a colour and the makeshift PPE factory churned out enough face masks to supply all of the villages on the west coast. The Indonesian government has made it mandatory for all people to wear a face mask when out in public.”