Indonesian Patients Trade Recyclable Trash for Healthcare

The poor in Malang – Indonesia, pay for health care by handing over recyclable waste. Mohammad Yazid who is 58 years old and suffers with acute headaches, collects a kilo of plastic and paper refuse and hands it over with his Garbage Clinical Disposal card. Siti Hasanah is another person who has breathing problems and needs healthcare which she pays for by collecting household waste.

They are members of the Garbage Clinical Insurance in Malang. This clinic helps the poor to receive health care in exchange for waste. This service is available once a week.

The founder of the clinic is 24 year old Gamal Albinsaid, who chose waste as a currency as he found it had a lot of potential. Waste could be turned into fertilizer and worm farms. Albinsaid said, “The key is to elevate the value of the waste significantly. So we combined the waste potential and insurance concept, and created this. It’s a micro-project. We’re taking the available potential of the people and turning it into a health care fund, and we give back to society in the form of the health care clinic.”

The clinic now has 500 members since it started a year back and there are now five more clinics across the city. People line up at these clinics, waiting for health care every evening, from 4 – 8 p.m. “We’re now focusing on primary health care,” Albinsaid says. “But keep in mind that this is a holistic health care service. So if you’re healthy, we will keep you healthy. We will help prevent healthy people from becoming sick, and rehabilitate those who are ill.”

Albinsaid wanted to continue the good work and help the poor receive health care. In a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace he was honored by Prince Charles with the Prince of Wales Young Entrepreneurship award, along with a cash prize of $70,000.

References:

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Dhina Chahyatiningsih, May 2014

Hannah Punitha (IRDA Licence Number: 2710062)

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Source-Medindia