A SEEDS health consultant has been working in this Riau Village for over five years. The process of helping to change attitudes toward acceptance of modern medicine is slow work, and to encourage healthy lifestyle changes is even harder.
Yet the work of the community health promotion program has gained the villagers’ trust. Many days are repetitive, with measuring blood pressures and recurring teachings on such dangers as hypertension and benefits of a healthy diet.

This day seemed like many others, with older ladies gathered around to have their blood pressure taken, when a younger woman approached and mentioned that she had a growth under each of her arms that has become painful. Examination revealed grapefruit-sized fatty lumps under each of the woman’s arms that were growing closer to the front of her chest.

The SEEDS worker explained the importance of being evaluated at the government medical facility. She also explained the steps involved in receiving free care provided by the government. The worker expected to return the next week to explain the process again, since there are obstacles to receiving care at a facility that does not use the village’s dialect, and it is difficult for people with low literacy to fill in the paperwork. However, to the SEEDS worker’s surprise, the woman came up and thanked her for the advice. She had already had her first operation, and was waiting to recover before having the growth removed from the opposite side.

The work of a community health program is more than pills and bandages; it is a relationship of trust.