By strengthening various local community support services and resources that are critical to enabling economic opportunity, we aim to contribute to overall community resilience and wellbeing. Our work includes supporting opportunities and access to capital for small businesses, promoting local sourcing opportunities for small businesses, enhancing basic infrastructure such as affordable housing. Fundamental to this work is supporting widespread access to health and wellness services. Below we provide some examples of this work at our operations in Indonesia.

Advancing public health services in Papua, Indonesia

PT-FI works closely with the local Mimika Regency government to support the provision of health services in the region through capacity building, construction of clinics and malaria control programs. In coordination with the Mimika Regency government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), PT-FI’s Community Health Development department and International SOS, PT-FI’s medical services provider, implement programs for education, prevention, counseling, diagnosis and treatment of diseases within and around the project area. This includes a comprehensive public health program addressing malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and maternal and pediatric health.

Near PT-FI’s operations, we support services for the Banti community through a temporary facility managed by Mimika Regency government health workers using PT-FI infrastructure. PT-FI continues to work with the Mimika Regency government and security officials to find long-term sustainable solutions for infrastructure and public health services in the area.

PT-FI provides significant funding for healthcare activities through its support of the Amungme and Kamoro Community Empowerment Foundation (YPMAK), a community-led, grant-making organization that invests in in community-based programs in the areas of health, education, economic development, training and small-scale infrastructure. In the health sector, YPMAK has provided significant ongoing assistance for community health programs and medical services at the Mitra Masyarakat Hospital.

YPMAK resources also support the Healthy Village Program which focuses on maternal health, malaria control, TB and HIV/ AIDS control, eye health, sanitation and clean water. In 2021, seeking to understand if there was enough access to healthcare, the program conducted a survey to assess health services in 55 villages among 8 districts in the Mimika Regency. The results of this survey recommended that the program expand its services into 13 of those villages, which is planned for the future in collaboration with the Mimika Regency government. Additionally, YPMAK forged a partnership with BPJS (the national health insurance program) focused on strengthening public access to health insurance services for seven Indigenous groups. Through collaboration with BPJS, as many as 10,000 people from the seven Indigenous groups have been registered to become members. The number of patient visits to the Mitra Masyarakat Hospital and Klinik Mitra Masyarakat clinic during the year remained consistent with previous years. As of December 2021, 100,000 outpatients and 10,000 inpatients have been provided health services at the hospital and the clinic. Approximately 70% of patients at the hospital and clinic are from the seven Indigenous groups.

Malaria Prevention

The Papua Province in general, and specifically the Mimika Regency where PT-FI operates, has the highest malaria rates in Indonesia. In almost every local community within our project area, malaria and acute respiratory infections are the two major causes of morbidity and hospitalizations. Coping with rapid population in-migration and growth is one of the biggest challenges for reducing the incidence of malaria in the Mimika Regency. Although declining, the health risks to PT-FI’s workforce and surrounding local communities remain a concern. In response, PT-FI continues to implement its integrated malaria control program focused specifically in the more urbanized areas of the capital of Timika.

PT-FI and YPMAK in partnership with the Mimika Regency government operate the Mimika Malaria Center and its Timika Malaria Control Program (TMCP). TMCP coordinates all malaria prevention activities, such as indoor residual spraying of insecticides, mosquito net distribution and strategies to prevent outdoor transmission (e.g., larvae monitoring, fogging, repellent and prevention education). Recent local studies have shown that transmission occurs both indoors and outdoors requiring a wider variety of prevention measures. In 2021, over 43,300 people in local communities were reached through malaria health promotion events. However, the malaria incident rate within the workforce was 84 cases per 1,000 people – a slight increase from 2020. The number of detected cases of malaria at participating community clinics was 8,606; and all were effectively treated with ACT (artemisinin-based combination therapy) as per Indonesia government and the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Multi-drug resistance in malaria parasites remains a significant challenge in Papua yet detected malaria cases have been effectively treated with ACT and no resistance to ACT has been detected.

HIV/AIDS Prevention

HIV/AIDS prevalence in Papua Province and Mimika Regency has the greatest impact on the Indigenous Papuan population. PT-FI continues to implement its HIV/AIDS prevention, outreach and treatment programs for its workforce and community members in collaboration with the Mimika Regency government health services. Results during 2021 were encouraging, with HIV/AIDS incidence in the workplace falling to 0.3 cases per 1,000 – a 77% decrease over 2020.

Through PT-FI’s HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) service, the company along with International ISOS, reached approximately 14,000 PT-FI employees in 2021. Additionally, through the TB-HIV program, which is a community program supported in partnership with Puskesmas, we reached 2,800 community members. The TB-HIV program seeks to educate community members on HIV and tuberculosis prevention, whereas the VCT service is a workforce-focused program that has been recently integrated into annual medical checkups. Participants in VCT are being diagnosed with HIV cases at an early stage, before AIDS-related complications arise. Antiretroviral therapy is provided free of charge by the Indonesia government to HIV positive members of PT-FI’s workforce as well as the community. Early diagnosis provides individuals an opportunity to receive proper treatment that leads to better long-term health outcomes and helps to prevent HIV transmission to others. PT-FI also provides confidential VCT and sexual health services at two public health clinics, one in Timika and one in the Wania District. Approximately 1,100 community members from Timika received VCT at these clinics in 2021.

Tuberculosis Prevention

The WHO ranks Indonesia, including Papua, as having the second largest number of TB cases in the world. PT-FI continues to implement an intensive and comprehensive TB program for both its workforce and surrounding communities, organizing educational outreach events, such as World TB Day and smaller-scale group sessions. The company organized one-on-one and group sessions that reached more than 2,200 community members in 2021. Through active case detection, PT-FI staff reached out to approximately 400 individuals who were in close contact with TB patients and provided them with testing and educational information. The PT-FI TB clinic located in Timika, which is operated in collaboration with the Mimika Regency government and the YPMAK, follows the WHO’s recommended Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTs) approach for active case detection and treatment of new TB cases. Among the people tested through PT-FI’s TB program in 2021, approximately 300 new TB cases were detected in the community, which were successfully treated by following DOTs.

PT-FI Human Health Assessment

PT-FI has been undertaking a multi-year human health assessment (HHA) with support from various third parties. This comprehensive HHA is composed of multiple phases starting with the human health risk assessment followed by an on-the-ground local community health survey with support led by the local health authority. Following completion of these phases, we plan to provide a summary of the results as well as next steps.

To learn more, please see our 2021 ANNUAL REPORT ON SUSTAINABILITY

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