Kempsey Report - URGENT NOW |
|
| Financial assistance, prayers, and media exposure are desperately needed now! To save our Australian Indigenous brothers and sisters from extinction. The original Aboriginal population has been reduced to less than 10%. In the first week of December alone, 7 young children died from diabetes and malnutrition in Kempsey, Australia. The situation is dire; 80% of the Aboriginal population suffers from diabetes and neglect as a result of governmental policy and cultural genocide. ACT NOW! Email Us Here to Pledge Your Support Join us in feeding the children at school by giving a monthly financial donation. Through this action, we have been able to prevent the parents from stealing the food from their children and taking the money for drugs and alcohol. Donate now. Join us in prayer. Go to the Global Prayer Network Communicate to the world through the Aboriginal Broadcast, by writing your government leaders and the leaders in Australia, and also by sending this request to everyone that you know. Get Educated! Find out what your voice can do. Read the following report: Preliminary Report on the dire situation of the Australian AboriginalsSummary The trip to Kempsey was a heartbreaking yet fulfilling one. Many friends and family were met. There were many extremely sad stories but there were also signs of light and potential. I could feel the spiritual and energetic support throughout the whole trip and we ended the trip with the huge beautiful moon at our back, exactly one cycle after our separation with Uluru. Kempsey is a town of approx 30,000 of which 7000 are Indigenous. It is one of the largest Indigenous populations in Australia. Kempsey is a town that 40 years ago had a 90% vote against the recognition of Indigenous people as human beings and not under the Flora and Fauna Act. This discrimination remains in place. The problems in Kempsey are the result of severe mental, emotional, social and cultural decay, secondary to the wounds inflicted throughout the past 200 years from colonization until now. There is discrimination still rampant throughout the general society, throughout the police force and throughout the administration that prevents Aboriginal people accessing health, justice, finance, housing and education. There is a social crisis right now in Kempsey. Drug and alcohol abuse is widespread, with some families/parents being drunk more than 5 nights per week. Children are left to roam on the street, injure themselves and go to school without any food. Generational poverty is extreme and is exacerbated by gambling and the drug and alcohol problems. The main drug problem is marijuana abuse. Many people are dying of complications of chronic disease. A common story is a 35-year-old mother who dies of a heart attack after her diabetes and other chronic disease was not controlled. These diseases are made so much worse by the malnutrition and damage to the body that comes from severe drug and alcohol abuse and poverty. Of course these problems have major contributing factors from problems in the mind, in the emotions, in the relationships. In the past 12-18 months, at one school alone 15 mothers have been lost through illness and accident, leaving babies, children and families totally lost and torn asunder. In another time period there were 25 deaths in a 26-week period largely due to preventable causes. There are absolutely inadequate counseling services, as it takes more than 5 months to access the counselor at the medical service. This is a place in which intervention is sorely needed, especially for the children, who are starting to rebel at school as these issues go on unresolved. The food program at the school has been going very well, with teachers reporting that children who had previously come to school without food now could be fed. This has resulted in more cooperative children, a willingness to learn and increased retention rate. In the future the food program could be developed as an education opportunity in nutrition for the children. The reasons why illnesses get so out of control that they result in fatal complications is multi-factorial. There is difficulty getting proper awareness and education out there to Aboriginal people. There are cultural barriers to access, which make Aboriginal people feel uncomfortable in a medical clinic or talking to a doctor. There is poverty and mismanagement of finances, which result in an Aboriginal person unable to afford transport to medical services or to afford medication, despite the medication being heavily subsidized by the government. There is binge drinking and drug taking which has obvious effects on health and health behavior. There are in general adequate primary health facilities. There is no emergency situation requiring medication or increased services that would make a large impact on the health services. To try to pay for people's medication would be a large and difficult endeavor, especially when the root of the problem is in the emotional and cultural situations. There are 2 doctors at the clinic. There are never enough resources to serve any community but this situation is drastic. We discussed with staff members at the clinic and they thought that primary prevention strategies e.g. education, helping patients culturally understand and access medical services, were a more worthy place to spend money. Addressing the lack of health practitioners (trained nurses, nutritionists, counselors, etc) also was identified as another worthy place to spend money. There was no support for an Aboriginal clinic. There were no people who seemed to have interest in setting this up or maintaining it if the funds became available. The message that we received from Uncle Fred Kelly has turned out to be inaccurate. Related to this, Kempsey Hospital has 6 dialysis machines, which Aboriginal people have no difficulty accessing, apart from underlying cultural problems. If dialysis machines were provided in-community, there would be no trained staff to maintain and operate such a service at the current time. The health of children remains an ongoing and worrying concern. Although no empirical data was obtained due to confidentiality reasons, the social situation that these children live in predispose them to all areas of ill health, from malnutrition, neglect and abuse to primary respiratory disease, metabolic (diabetes) disease, cardiovascular disease and infection. This is primarily a social problem and results from the deterioration of the adults and family in the society. Potential Solutions The complex problem of how to rebuild people and communities from such severe and debilitating trauma remains the central issue we need to address if we are to get anywhere in assisting these people. At the end of the day, these people need to pick themselves up from the inside. Fostering leadership in the community has emerged as a key intervention that will assist others in taking steps toward their own health. Although there are no present leaders that are in a state to take the cause forward, there are many potential candidates. We look to develop a leadership program to assist these people to gain the mental emotional healing/counseling they require; the business and financial accountability/management skills as well as other leadership skills they will require. Support for their businesses is a must and currently this primarily is cultural export. Other initiatives that we are considering: At a later stage the larger population problems can be addressed but these later programs will not be feasible without the support of leaders in the community. There were several beautiful and intelligent children who are in high school who would be very worthy of support. Despite the darkness in their communities they still hold to high ambitions of education and career and these children should be supported wherever possible. We have plenty of footage available addressing all the issues mentioned in this preliminary report. They will be available shortly on the internet. Hien Nguyen, 26 November 2007 The Learning Center for Human Development Inc. 49862 Batesville Road Summerfield, OH 43788, Ph: (740) 838-4033 tawa@cfhd.org |
|
  |
|
 |
|
| © Copyright Yunsai Society 1954 - 2008 » Email Administrator » Site Map » Networking » YS was activated in |