Asia Insight — Season 1, Episode 24: East Timor's Mobile Health Clinics

Episode synopsis

10 years after gaining independence from Indonesia, East Timor is slowly rebuilding itself but basic infrastructure is still largely unestablished. A severe shortage of doctors and nurses is resulting in alarmingly high mortality rates for infants and pregnant women. To try and alleviate this, the East Timorese government has been offering mobile health check-ups nationwide since 2008. Some villagers support these efforts by serving as volunteers. They go door to door to check on the health of women and children, and encourage them to get examinations at the mobile health clinics. This episode of Asia Insight follows the endeavours of the mobile health workers and volunteers and depicts some of the difficulties facing this young nation.

About Asia Insight

An in-depth portrait of Asia today, covering its dynamism as a center of growth as well as its traditions tossed around by the advance of globalization.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Migrants Gain Upper Hand
• E2Indonesia's First National Car
• E3Diversifying Shanghai
• E4Vietnam's Court Music Revival
• E5Writers Fight Publishing Ban in HK
• E6Mongolia's Forgotten Slum Dwellers
• E7The "80's Writers" in China
• E8Hydropower for Indonesian Villagers
• E9Energy-Hungry Nepal
• E10China's Job-Hunting Inn
• E11The Year of the Dragon Baby Boom
• E12The Dancing Prisoners