Aboriginal children as young as eight-years-old are being trained up as child doctors in Central Australia as part of a project to boost health outcomes in remote communities.
The pilot Tjitji Doctors (Child Doctors) program is a partnership between the Malpa Project and St Vincent de Paul and will run out of Alice Springs from next month. It will see children aged eight to 10 learn basic health skills from western medical professionals, traditional healers and Aboriginal elders to become health ambassadors in their communities.
Children who show responsibility and attend school regularly will be chosen by community elders to take part in the project, and learn about simple hygiene practices like washing, wearing clean clothes, cleaning noses, and keeping a clean house.
The driving force of the project is the alarming health statistics for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, such as 91 per cent suffering from otitis media with the risk of going deaf, and 25 per cent at risk of blindness from trachoma, which has been eliminated in all other western countries.
Research shows simple hygiene techniques will greatly improve primary health outcomes, and reduce long term problems, though the task will be challenged by factors such as more than three quaters of Northern Territory Aboriginal households having no power or water.
The scheme has been tried around the world with great success. The Malpa Project's website says there are more than 2,000 child doctors in Nepal, while its presence in Indonesia is said to have prevented outbreaks of deadly diseases such as cholera after the 2004 tsunami.
The project's medical director Dr Sabine Boes has extensive experience in remote communities and says the best thing about the idea is that it puts Aboriginal people in charge of their own situation.
*Image of Dr Sabine Boes with a group of remote Aboriginal children courtesy of The Malpa Project.
