While in Bali to pay her respects to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reinforced Australia's growing commitment to saving lives and reducing poverty in Indonesia.
To help Indonesia reduce its high maternal and neonatal mortality rates, Prime Minister Gillard and Indonesia's Minister for Health, Ibu Nafsiah M'boi, announced a new $50 million health program.
The new program will enable Indonesia to provide millions of poor men, women and children with free access to quality health care by improving the effectiveness of thousands of health clinics across Indonesia.
The Prime Minister also visited the Sanglah Hospital and toured facilities supported by Australia including the intensive care centre, the top quality burns unit, refurbished pathology department and morgue.
At the hospital, the Prime Minister met Indonesian medical staff who have received Australia Awards to study medicine or a health-related field in Australia, including scholarship recipient Siluh Nyoman Alit Nuryani.
Alit received a masters degree in nursing from The University of Wollongong and is the nurse unit manager in the emergency ward at Sanglah Hospital.
When meeting with the Prime Minister, Alit explained how her time in Australia had enhanced her leadership and management skills, both necessary for the supervision of clinical activities in the emergency unit.
Since 2002, 41 people from Bali have received Australia Awards to study medicine or a health-related field in Australia. This support to health will continue, with the Prime Minister announcing that 20 scholarships dedicated to health care studies will now be provided to Indonesians each year.
The Prime Minister also met with Australian volunteers who work at the hospital. Di Brown, who began at Sanglah Hospital as a volunteer nurse educator, explained her new role as coordinator of a clinical exchange program between the Royal Darwin Hospital and Sanglah Hospital.
These scholarships, and the twinning arrangement between the Royal Darwin Hospital and Sanglah Hospital, which was announced by Prime Minister Gillard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Darwin earlier this year, will help health workers in Indonesia acquire new skills.
The Prime Minister also met with scholarship recipient Gung Putra, who has a masters degree in nursing from Flinders University in Adelaide, and is the assistant director of nursing in the emergency department at Sanglah Hospital.
Gung Putra spoke about her involvement in the Royal Darwin Hospital twinning arrangement, where she received a triage system course. She is now helping her workplace improve its emergency handling system to provide better care for emergency patients.
Australia provided more than $14 million in assistance to help Bali recover from the 2002 bombings. This included upgrades to the Sanglah Hospital, construction of the Australia Bali Memorial Eye Centre and funding for the Bali Rehabilitation Fund to help the local community deal with the downturn in tourism. Australia has increased its aid annually to Indonesia from $122.8 million in 2001-02 to $578.4 million in 2012-13.
Australia works with the Indonesian Government to deliver aid in health, education, roads, poverty reduction, water and sanitation, and democratic governance projects in Bali.
More information
Media release: Better health care for poor Indonesian women and children [external link]
Remarks at the Sanglah Hospital [external link]