“Welcome to the talk show with International Medical Corps,” announces Jos, a disc jockey at Rapeja radio in Lamno, introducing the weekly, live call-in show. “Today’s topic is the proper technique for breast feeding.”
International Medical Corps proposed the idea of a medical talk show to the station in August 2006. They immediately saw the value and two months later the first show was on the air. It has been on every week since, covering issues seen regularly while working in area villages.
Topics have ranged from avian flu to scabies to family planning. Once a topic has been decided, International Medical Corps staff prepares materials for the station to review, but the heart of the show comes from the listeners.
“What is the difference between feeding powdered milk and breast milk?” one caller asks. “What effect does smoking have on the baby?” asks another. There is an average of six to eight calls per hour-long show that vary from the simple to the sophisticated.
“It’s good because we can give information directly to the people,” says Dr. Fathur Rahim, one of the three International Medical Corps staff answering callers’ questions on today’s show. While the team rotates, it always consists of one doctor, one nurse and one midwife.
“In this area people still use traditional healing,” said Abdul Manaf, the station’s marketing director. “Through this program they’re becoming more aware of how to solve certain medical problems. For example, a show on hypertension was very helpful.”
It is an Acehnese tradition to feed bananas to infants as young as one-month old. But as International Medical Corps’s medical team told one caller that can be dangerous because babies’ digestive systems are not yet fully formed. One man called asking why one of his wife’s breasts was larger than the other. It turned out she was only feeding with one breast, so the other had dried up.
“Some women refuse to breast feed for fear their breast will no longer look nice,” says International Medical Corps midwife Yenni. Expressing a universal concern, one woman called and asked if that was true.
Sponsored by the Dutch donor agency Stichting Vluchteling (SV), the European Commission humanitarian aid department (ECHO) and Americares, the program is also used as continuing education for International Medical Corps-trained community health workers (kaders).
“It is important for the kaders,” says Yenni. “We train them and then give them radios so they can disseminate the information.” International Medical Corps has trained more than 125 volunteer community health workers throughout Aceh Province.
“I listen to the show regularly,” says Nurmala, an International Medical Corps trained kader in the village of Kuala Ligan, about an hour’s drive from Lamno. “Although sometimes I am busy cooking and caring for my family.”
Rapeja was established in 2002, but destroyed by the tsunami. Rebuilt and back on the air since June 2005, it is heard in more than three thousand households throughout Aceh Jaya province with programming ranging from local and national news, music shows and the five daily prayers. And while the weather can sometimes interfere with the signal, it is the only radio station in the district of Aceh Jaya, and International Medical Corps’ show is the only medical-information program.
“I would like to increase the frequency to twice a week,” says Manaf. A request International Medical Corps is more than happy to consider.