February 2024 blog
Beach shot from the Linapacan mission
A few years back, there was this detective series on Netflix called “Death in Paradise“ I used to watch. It was an English series set on one of the Caribbean islands still part of Britain. The protagonist detective inspector lived in a house on a beautiful white sandy beach while solving murders on the island. I admit I felt a bit envious. But hey, it was just a TV series, right? Nice fantasy of doing good work in paradise like settings...
When we recently set out to visit the island of Linapacan in the province of Palawan, the Philippines, I found myself in the middle of such a fantasy in real life! Linapacan is a remotely located island with the clearest water I’ve ever seen in a harbor. Pristine beaches, almost everywhere you look as you approach the island. Uncountable fish swimming right next to the pier and even a blue starfish in plain sight as we step off the boat upon arrival.
There is a single physician on the island, who takes care of the roughly 17,000 population together with his team. Being the only(!) physician on the island, he is “on call” 24/7. When we visited Culion Island in August 2023, he had made the sea journey to see us asking us to bring our pocus ultrasound project for midwives and nurses to his island.
This physician, Dr Tejada, is a man on the move. The busy, but old birthing center is being replaced by a brand new building, which will house an x-ray machine and a stationary ultrasound machine. As we begin our discussions with our partner, the local government, it becomes clear that the mayor is genuinely interested in healthcare, taking care of the population and very much supports Dr Tejada. We realize, these are perfect grounds and conditions for our project.
Wherever we go here we encounter friendly folk, curiosity and enthusiasm. The challenges are many, the population, the majority indigenous people known as “Tagbanua”, is spread over multiple small islands and desperately poor. This is a “class 5” municipality, meaning it is the opposite of a rich town. The next hospital is a 4+ hour boat ride away (in good weather with calm waters). This means: preventing emergencies and preventing disease are key. That’s exactly what LMI is all about. We have come to the right place!
After spending our last 2 hours on a beautiful, white sandy beach (yes, like paradise!) and swimming in crystal blue waters we make the return boat trip to our “base” in the town of Coron on the island of Busuanga. With us on the boat happens to be a young lady patient in pain to undergo further diagnostics in the closest hospital. After the 4.5 hour boat ride with us the poor lady has to take yet another boat to Culion island, where the hospital is located. We tell ourselves: If this is what women in pain have to go through, what about an emergency at the time of birth? Surely, LMI is looking at the right place for its next project!
Today, the “Death in Paradise” series is no longer available on Netflix. Hey Netflix: how about a new one called “Health in Paradise”?