Julia Martins do Ceo is relatively new to motherhood. She has two small children, one still a baby. So far she says she has had no real problems either having her babies or keeping them healthy.
Antonia Ilda da Costa has eight living children. She delivered them at home with only her husband with her. Her first baby – a boy – died when he was only months old. He became ill and Antonia and her husband couldn't get him to a doctor or a hospital.
Julia and Antonia live in Hatolia Leten village. It has a population of 525 and it's common for families to have ten children. The village is about a four hour drive from Dili on roads that are more like goat tracks in places. That's on a good day. When it rains, the roads either wash away or become muddy quagmires and travel becomes impossible. Most of the families in the village are very poor and have no means of transport.
In the past, this lack of accessibility has made it almost impossible for children to receive medical treatment when they become ill, or for mothers to receive care during or after pregnancy. But now the Ministry of Health, with Australia's assistance, is bringing medical care to the people of Hatolia Leten and other villages in the form of mobile clinics.
Every month, small teams of health workers and educators wind their way in small vans through mountains and dense jungle to remote rural villages. When they arrive, they set up clinics that provide treatment of common diseases, immunisation and growth monitoring for children, antenatal care, advice on family planning, and information on nutrition and hygiene.
In Hatolia Leten, there is no shortage of local women as clients. Julia attends because she wants her children to be vaccinated against diseases. Antonia comes to the clinic because her youngest child is malnourished and the clinic is helping her baby get better. Before the clinics started she didn't know anything about family planning. Now she is learning about it.
East Timor has made some progress in improving maternal and child health in the past decade. More women are receiving antenatal care, more children are being immunised, and the mortality rate for infants and children under-five has improved dramatically. However, children in East Timor's rural areas are among the most malnourished in the world, and the maternal mortality rate is still very high at around 450-557 deaths per 100 000 live births. This is over double the average for the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia's support for the 475 mobile health clinics that make their way around East Timorese villages is playing an important role in increasing access to quality health services. Living in a remote part of the country shouldn't be a barrier to receiving essential medical care.
And if the number of women and men who come to the clinics is anything to go by, the clinics are doing their job. As the village chief of Hatolia Leten, Faustino do Menino Jesus puts it 'We are happy to have the mobile clinic. It is very helpful. We can get medicine for malaria and malnutrition and other things.'