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Preliminary Report on the Dire Situation of the Australian Aboriginals

Summary

URGENT NOW
The Learning Center for Human Development is supporting our Australian base in their organizational effort and determination to help with a solution and resolve of the dire aboriginal state. Our Founder, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, sends out a plea for all people to consider helping alleviate the plight of these beautiful and original people.

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 mal-nutrition 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.

Preliminary Report on the dire situation of the Australian Aboriginals – Dr.Hien Nguyen

The trip to Kempsey was a heartbreaking yet fulfilling one. Many families were met. There were many extremely sad stories but there were also signs of potential.

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 places.

The problems in Kempsey are all 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 Center For Human Development food program at the s chool has been going very well, with teachers reporting that children who had previously come to school without food now were able to be fed. This has resulted in more cooperative children, a willingness to learn and increased retention rate. What we want to do in the future with the food program could be developed as an education opportunity in nutrition for the children as well.

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 endeavour, 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 we discussed with staff members at the clinic and they thought that primary prevention strategies, 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 for financial assistance.

The desire of the aboriginal people to have a local Kempsey Clinic got no support. There were no people who seemed to have interest in setting this up or maintaining it if the funds became available. Kempsey Hospital has 6 dialysis machines which aboriginal people have no difficulty accessing, apart from underlying cultural problems of staff prejudicial abuse and disrespect. 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, metabolic (diabetes), cardiovascular 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:

      -a commercial housing enterprise buying and supplying aboriginal people with housing

      -a non profit safe-house program for the children equipped with education facilities/computers/garden for them to do their homework/have shelter from environments such as when their parents are drunk/on drugs

      -support for children who show promise in their education/exchange program/educational materials/computers/scholarships

      -funding a counseling service for children who have lost mothers/parents to incarceration or death

      -art therapy services for the above mentioned children

      -the eventual purchase of a property for use as a healing/education/cultural preservation centre for adults and children.

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.
Hien Nguyen, MD - 26 November 2007

The Learning Center for Human Development Inc.
49862 Batesville Road
Summerfield, OH 43788,
Ph: (740) 838-4033
info@cfhd.org

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