Drs Rina and Juhanis: Making a difference in uniform

DISEASES and the lack of proper hygiene, healthcare and clean drinking water are huge challenges in Afghanistan. The country has long been engaged in civil war and is isolated from mainstream development.
Two Malaysian Army doctors, Captain (Dr) Rina Sumira Sukri and Captain (Dr) Juhanis Safira Johari, both 28, relate their experiences serving with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to render humanitarian aid to the locals.

The team

Rina, a dental officer, and Juhanis, a medical officer, were part of the 40-strong Malaysian Contingent 2 that served under ISAF. They spent 180 days in Afghanistan, beginning April 25 last year.

Led by Lt Col Rusman Sanip, Malaysian Contingent 2 was under the UN’s Regional Command East of the Combined Joint Task Force 1 and was based at the Bamiyan Provincial Reconstruction Team Headquarters manned by New Zealand peacekeepers.

The medical team had six officers and 12 other ranks who were led by Lt Col Md Anuar Mohd. Rina, Juhanis and Captain (Dr) Rauhah Muhammad Salleh were the only women officers, along with five other paramedics. The rest of the contingent comprised members from the security and logistics fields.
“Our task was to assist the Afghan civilian community, their police, military and tourist guides to improve their healthcare. We had to treat many diseases that had already been eradicated in other parts of the world,” said Rina.
“The locals there had many health-related issues due to a variety of environmental factors, including geographical isolation, poor immunisation support and polluted drinking water. Water-borne diseases were their No. 1 problem.”

Effective, simple changes

Juhanis said part of her team’s task was to teach local midwives, provide dental care, train park rangers and purify the water. “We were there to help build the Bamiyan healthcare system by enhancing the capacity, mentoring and training the local folk.”

The team, she added, came up with inexpensive and sustainable water filter systems in schools and homes, after seeing children drinking from drains.
“The kids were vulnerable to chronic and communal diseases such as brucellosis that afflicted animals, and those brought by the E-coli bacteria. One of our efforts was improvising a small water filtration system using a steel drum and clean sand from the bed of a local river. Initially, the locals were reluctant to purify their water over fears that the chlorine used in the purification process was not halal, or religiously permissible. But as fellow Muslims, we managed to convince them.”

To overcome the shortcomings in quality dental care, said Rina, the team trained the locals to become dental assistants who could perform procedures normally done by qualified dentists.
“As there was only one local dentist there, I had to teach the dental assistants to do extractions, fillings and cleaning.”

Juhanis pointed out that one out of five children below the age of four die due to lack of immunisation.
“So we had to increase access to immunisations and to conduct blood donation campaigns in view of the critical need at local hospitals. Many, however, feared the process or resisted our efforts as blood donation was relatively new in that country,” she said.

Helping locals

To muster support and overcome the challenges, the team enlisted the help of Bamiyan province grand mullah Mullah Hajji Ahmadi, who gave public service announcements about the importance of donating blood.
Juhanis recalled one donor who was eager to donate but could not do so because of his blood pressure.

“He refused to leave the clinic and we had to wait for his blood pressure to reach an acceptable limit before he was allowed to donate blood,” she said.
On training park rangers, the team taught them basic life support, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid, especially those manning the scenic Badi Amir National Park.

The efforts of the Malaysian contingent, through their innovative methods, certainly helped to make a difference for the locals.
On another note, Rina said though the team served in the safe zone in Bamiyan, which has seven districts, the threat to their safety was always there, especially from the feuding Hazarat tribe and the Talibans. At times, they had to travel to the Yakawlang, Panjab and Waras districts.

“Our perimeter was heavily guarded at all times. Our daily routine began at 7am. After a quick clean-up, we would undergo physical training before breakfast.

“Then we would hit the showers and change into our working clothes. We worked from 9am to 5pm daily,” said Rina, adding that the sleeping quarters were double-decker beds in 40ft containers.
As for food, Juhanis said Malaysian food was easily available since they had their own cooks.