The Centro de Saúde Daniel Ornelas (CSDO) health centre was inaugurated recently as part of the healthcare project of the Jesuits in Timor-Leste. Besides providing medical services to the students and staff of Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL) and Instituto São João de Brito, the health centre will also reach out to the local community of Ulmera and the greater Liquiçá district, where medical services are inadequate.
“The people living in the remotest areas of the district have no access to a health clinic,” said CSDO Director Sr Eliza Fernandes RJM. “They have to walk a long way on rugged and dusty pathways to reach the government health centre.” Moreover, the nearest hospital is 45 to 90 minutes away by car in the nation’s capital, Dili. This means a delay in treatment and many risk dying due to the lack of medical care.
Thus, the inauguration on September 16 was an occasion that brought joy to the villagers in the rural areas, many of whom came for the event. Before the establishment of the facility, the clinic was operating in temporary premises in CSIL. Sr Eliza says that with the opening of the health centre, more patients from the villages will be able to get check-ups and treatments. The planned mobile clinic will also help greatly, not least in bringing healthcare closer to the people.
“We are thankful to the Jesuit mission for building this health centre in our midst,” said João Nascimento Braz, Sub district Administrator of Bazartete. “It will be a big help to the local community. Now we will not have to bear with very minimal medical attention.”
During the inauguration Mass, Fr Joaquim Sarmento SJ, Superior of the Jesuits in Timor, recognised the generosity of the people who made the health centre possible. In remembering the benefactors, he related the story of the frangipani, a flower common in Timor. Fr Sarmento shared that St Ignatius actively looked for wealthy benefactors in Rome to contribute to the treatment of people who had been affected by the plague. One of the wealthy families who responded was the Frangipani family. When the Jesuits who were sent to Malacca in Malaysia saw the exotic flower, they named the flower Frangipani in honour of the generosity of the family who gave for the care of the sick in Rome.
Fr Sarmento likewise paid homage to Br Daniel Ornelas SJ who inspired the name of the health centre and the whole healthcare project. Br Ornelas provided medical services to people in Dare and Aileu in the rural areas of Timor-Leste from 1962 to 2009.
Building on what Br Ornelas had long ago started, Sr Eliza hopes to help raise the living conditions of the people in the villages through healthcare education and services. “By providing medical care, we hope to improve their health condition and strengthen the development in their communities,” she said.