I did a portrait photoshoot for Laura Chella in Kuala Lumpur recently. I got to know her better during one of the conversations over a lunch break. She spoke passionately about her social enterprising work in Sarawak. She even brought a beautiful hand-made weaved bag by the Penan women.

Her Project SHINE goal is to raise funds by promoting and selling the hand-made weaved bags and most of the proceeds will go back to the Project Shine. Project Shine aims to help educate 100 Penan households and families about sanitation, clean water, health, personal hygiene, and nutrition.

Her passion and commitment to this project moved me to help her in creating a short video which will be coming soon after we returned from the expedition. I will be following her and her team of 10 doctors and 5 volunteers to document the expedition. We will be going to 100 Penan households in Sarawak for 7 days along Ulu Baram river which can only be accessible via logging roads with 4WDs.

The estimated project cost is RM91,000 which is broken down to the following:

1. RM30,000 medical supplies 
2. RM31,000 logistics for 15 pax of medical team & volunteers for 7-days 
3. RM20,000 solar panel 
4. RM10,000 portable clean water filtration system for 100 families

I created this page for the purpose of inviting all of you to donate towards one of the costs for providing a clean water filtration system for the 100 Penan households and families.

Currently, they don't have clean water and water is the basis for overall health and proper personal hygiene, they are suffering from diseases that they do not have any knowledge about.

Let's do this together, everyone. Your donation will go directly to the Penan households and families for a healthier and hygienic daily living. Please donate generously with all your heart.

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Even more details below.

Project SHINE (short for Sanitation, Health/Hygiene, Impact, Nutrition & Education) in collaboration with Clinical Research Centre, Sarawak General Hospital & Penan Women Project. The medical outreach service is limited due to accessibility, lack of human resources & limited medical supplies. This 7-days project will be 100 Penan households (equivalent to 300-500 Penans from mixture of villages with & without access of primary medical healthcare)

The project details are as follows:-

1. This is an annual trip organised by PWP to the remote Penan villages spread around Ulu Baram River, which are only accessible via logging roads with 4WDs. In 2017, PWP had similar trip with few medical doctors & realised that this initiative should continue & further expand to other villages. 
2. In essence, the 2018 trip, the medical team (consisting of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals, allied health and field researchers) will be giving medical healthcare treatment, consultation, healthy lifestyle education and disease surveillance on the Penans. 
3. Non-medical volunteers will be assisting in simple hygiene practices, local engagement, installing simple DIY Solar Panels Off Grid & Water Filtration System (subject to sponsorship & availability).
4. When: Mid-end October 2018
5. Problem that we are addressing:

• Medical accessibility to rural communities in Ulu Baram that are still not yet registered for scheduled visits by the local healthcare team
• Lack of healthy lifestyle awareness and practice within the rural and urban Penan communities.
• Lack of disease prevalence data on both communicable and non-communicable diseases among the Penans.
• Dogs are the Penan’s companions during hunting. With the recent outbreak on JE & Rabies around Sarawak, the community are exposed to the diseases.
• Addressing inequality of marginalised communities where they deserve the right to basic healthcare like the rest
• Stigma of modern medical practices is still at large in the community versus traditional practices, affecting the current population that is decreasing rapidly.

6. Project Goal/Outcome:

• Education and empowerment of the Penan communities on healthy lifestyle and hygiene practice - starts from home, start early for their children;
• policy and improvement on rural medical accessibility in-line with the policy of the Ministry of Health from the new government of Malaysia.
• For the Penan, increase of sense of self-esteem, change of perspective of modern healthcare vs jungle practices.

7. Project Output:

8. Social Impact

9. Endorsements:

• Dr Ooi, consultant paediatrician at Sarawak General Hospital who has designed this project & offered testing kits for flaviviruses such as dengue and JE for the Penan community.
• Dr Chua Hock Hin, State Infectious Disease specialist, supported the project and emphasized the need for disease surveillance in rural Sarawak communities.
• The medical team in Ulu Baram are ready to mobilise to support this project.