Melin (centre) hands over the new generator to his son Vito (left). Looking on is Melin’s other son Alan Luke.
MIRI: A group of volunteers succeeded in raising the required funds to purchase a new generator for the Long Jeeh Health Clinic in Marudi which had been without electricity supply for the past five months.
Mari Makan Team (MMT), formed by more than 20 friends from different backgrounds with the aim of helping those in need especially in rural areas cope with the implementation of the Movement Control Order, decided to take matters into their own hands after being informed of the clinic’s plight, its representative Melin Labu told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Melin said his son Vito Angan, who is an assistant medical officer at Long Jeeh Health Clinic, had sought assistance from MMT after the clinic’s two generators broke down and disrupted its daily operations.
“When I was informed of the case, I felt strongly that help needed to be given immediately as I worried about the patients who needed healthcare services. We were able to raise the money needed within five days and bought a generator costing about RM6,000 which can run for up to 12 hours,” he said.
Melin said he had earlier contacted an elected people’s representative on the matter but did not get a response, and so the group decided to proceed with the fundraising efforts themselves.
“We are thankful to those who had contributed to making this possible. After this (case), we will continue to look out to other health clinics in the rural areas as I believe they might be facing similar problems,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vito said personnel at the clinic had notified the Health Department when their two generators broke down, but were informed that the procedure would take time.
“We figured that our patients may not be able to wait and so we decided to try repair the generators ourselves but were unable to.
“With no technical skills and background, we couldn’t do much. Therefore we decided to purchase a new one and sought the help of MMT,” he said.
According to Vito, the Long Jeeh Health Clinic serves as many as 560 villagers from Long Selawan, Long Palai, Long Silat and Long Jeeh, handling between eight and 10 patients daily.
“Without electricity, we struggled to provide proper treatment especially those that involved devices that needed to be operated using electricity,” he explained.
He said he hopes the new generator would be able to cover their regular operating hours as well as in the event of after-hours emergency cases. Long Jeeh Health Clinic is currently manned by six personnel comprising medical officers, nurses and administrative staff.
The clinic is located about 300km from Miri, or more than seven hours’ drive via four-wheel-drive vehicle.