A healthy population is at the heart of sustainable development is a philosophy wholeheartedly embraced by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Freeport Indonesia. On a typical day in Tembagapura, the town near the great Grasberg mine that is currently the subject of a series of articles in International Mining, the 100-bed employee hospital is abuzz with activity. The medical staff delivers a baby, doctors perform an emergency appendectomy, ultrasounds and x-rays are administered, while dozens of people convalesce in a clean and comfortable environment. Several kilometres away at the 74-bed Waa-Banti Hospital, laboratory technicians pore over specimens using the latest in high-technology equipment, a broken bone is set, and mothers and children line up for immunisations, vitamins and nutritional education. Medical standards in Waa-Banti Hospital, funded by the Freeport Partnership Fund and owned by the LPMAK, are on par with the Freeport hospital, as with standards at top medical centers in Indonesia’s largest cities. The only difference is that these facilities are located in one of the country’s most remote regions.
“Before the presence of Freeport, there was no medical infrastructure here,” says Dr Morrison Bethea, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s Medical Director. “Our Chairman, Jim Bob Moffett, had a vision to set up the best possible healthcare system – a world class system – for his employees, and he wanted to build the same kind of system for our local neighbours in a way that would be sustainable.”
LPMAK is Lembaga Pengembangan Masyarakat Amungme Kamoro ( the Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Organisation) – a non-profit organisation aiming to improve quality of life and human resources for the seven Tribes (Amungme, Kamoro, Nduga, Dani, Damal, Moni, Mee) of Mimika Regency in which Grasberg sits. It is involved in development programs in education, health and economic development, and also supports activities implemented by traditional and religious organisations. A partner of Freeport, LPMAK manages and monitors the Freeport community development partnership fund, which is used to develop and support the local community.
Freeport’s workers are provided with a vertically integrated healthcare system from the mine down to the coast, with an equally competent and comprehensive system for the local population in the corridor of Freeport’s project area and in adjacent villages from the coast of the Arafura Sea to the mountain communities in the Central Highlands.
A major 101-bed local hospital funded by Freeport, owned by the local community through the LPMAK and managed by the healthcare provider Timika Caritas Foundation, serves the members of the seven local traditional population groups. Numerous clinics in surrounding remote locations serve thousands of clients each week. International SOS, a leading provider of medical services in more than 60 countries, manages the Freeport health system and provides expert advice for the community and local government health system in what Bethea describes as a successful co-operative effort. “We all have something in common. Whether you are a Freeport employee or someone from the local indigenous groups, you want good medical care for yourself and your family and you want things to be better for your children than it was for you.”
Australian Peter Ebsworth is Freeport’s Public Health Department Senior Advisor. An Ecologist with expertise in freshwater biology, he joined the organisation in 1993 to set up a mosquito control program in the lowlands portion of the Freeport project area during a time when the local population began to rapidly expand. Today he is senior advisor to 270 public health workers and provides technical support to the company’s health efforts as well as to the local government health department and the LPMAK Health Bureau.
Public health is one area in which the co-operative effort has paid off. The local population has mushroomed from a few thousand to more than one hundred thousand in a relatively short 30 years. As a result, fighting malaria and communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS has become more complex. Amid the complexities, there are numerous victories. The cure rate for tuberculosis in the local region is around 95%, compared to the World Health Organisation average of 85%. A sweeping HIV/AIDS education program for both employees and local residents has won accolades from global health agencies.
Malaria kills more people in the world today than any other disease. Freeport’s Public Health team has, for more than a decade, been thwarting the spread of the killer disease in the region in a multi-pronged effort that involves controlling the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite, attacking the vector where the mosquitoes live, providing preventive medications, testing the population and providing state-of-the-science treatment.
