We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2024 Dignity and Right to Health Award is Dr Hotlin Ompusunggu.

Dr Hotlin is a dentist and the Co-Founder of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), a nongovernmental organisation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. ASRI integrates dental healthcare and creation care through community-based projects, with a mission to break the cycle between poor health (especially dental), poverty and creation harm (especially loss of forest resources).

She is also the HealthServe project lead for Healthy Planet Indonesia, integrating conservation, dentistry and health care through community-based projects, with a mission to break the cycle between poverty and illegal logging in Indonesia. You can learn more and donate here.

Read an interview with her and Dr Michael Burke below.

MB: We're speaking today to Dr Holin Ompusunggu, the 2024 winner of the ICMDA Dignity and Right to Health Award. Dr Hotlin is a dentist who practices in Indonesia. Congratulations, Dr Hotlin. Can you tell us about your work?

HO: Thank you, Dr Michael. My work is actually integrating human health and environmental health, as part of my belief that we cannot be a healthy human being without a healthy environment. It's inspired by my previous work from Borneo, Indonesia that I continue in Sumatra, bringing this component of looking after the people at the same time enabling people to look after the environment. So this is enabling the ripple effect that empowers community in it's current state, but also for the long term well-being.

Can you speak to your motivation for this work?

I came from a Christian family, but I made a personal decision to follow Christ. And in my journey, since I was a teenager, I wanted to be a disciple. To follow what God teaches us to do. And based on what I learned from the Lord's Prayer, "may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." And this is really the thing that I reflected on many times. How can God's kingdom enable heaven on earth? So that's really my foundation of my work - to bring God's kingdom on earth. The reconciliation of human to God, human to human, and human to God's creation - bringing together all of these aspects. So my work is founded on this biblical foundation. And even my organization currently, though it's not a faith-based organization, but as the founder and director, I instill it in everything that we do. That we should have an eternal perspective of everything that we are doing.

Can you tell us about the dental part of your work?

So we know that dental care is very limited, especially in rural areas. Dental care is also very expensive. As a dentist, I want my skills to be helpful to the community. But many in the community cannot afford to pay for dental care. So we enable a system where community can access and afford dental care, and at the same time, have an impact on their well-being. We do this by giving them the opportunity to pay with non-cash (eg. goods or services), and these services and this goods can also have impact to restore God's creation. So this is a win-win solution for them and also for the creation that already in the process of being so destroyed by human activities.

The community we are working in is near one of the highest biodiversity rainforests in the world. We had survey in 2019-2020 that showed they really want to protect the forest, and they know that the forest is very important for their needs for the long-term. However, if they have immediate needs that they need to address, sometimes they feel they'll have to compromise with their long term well-being to meet their current needs. So they will cut down trees to get cash to pay for basic needs. We saw this reality, so we work with community to find more sustainable solutions that could impact for them and also can impact for their long term well-being. 

Could you also tell us about the ICMDA Creation Care and Health Training track?

We know that we are facing climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and environmental destructions. And we can only do so much in our area in Sumatra, Indonesia. But we need collaborative action. We need to work together around the globe. So, Dr Michael asked me to be part of an initiative to do something for Christians to mobilize around creation care. So I'm part of the ICMDA Creation Care and Health that has so many models that can enable people to have better perspective and understanding, and also some practical things that they can learn to be part of the change, to be change-makers, to reverse creation harm, and to create more shalom or God's creation.

Thank you Dr Hotlin Ompusunggu, the 2024 ICMDA Dignity and Right to Health Award winner. 

Thank you, it's my honor. I'm humbled to be chosen as the recipient of this award. I hope this award will inspire, ignite and spark something in those that listen to this story, so we can have more movement for God's creation, and to be the the agents of God and be used to bring glory to God. I hope this award also can inspire our team to have more confidence to serve the community. They are also part of this award, not just myself, because this accomplishment is a result of so many people involved in this work.

So this is for the community and also for our team and for people who helped me that I cannot mention one by one, but who help me from behind the scenes that we all together that can make an impactful, tangible impact for the community and for the glory of God. Thank you.