27-7-2023 (DILI) Singaporean doctors, Dr Natarajan Rajaraman and his wife Dr Lois Hong, are making a significant impact on the health care system in Timor-Leste. They run Maluk Timor, an NGO that trains local healthcare professionals and has 90 staff members, working with about 70 community health centres throughout the country. The centre in Dili is the busiest community health centre in Timor-Leste, serving the most significant number of patients at any given point in time.
Timor-Leste faces tremendous healthcare challenges, and Dr Rajaraman’s NGO focuses on strengthening the government’s primary health care system by training healthcare providers and improving healthcare infrastructure. Dr Rajaraman and his wife have been in Timor-Leste for the past three years, and Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan paid tribute to them and other Singaporeans for their contributions to the fledgling nation.
During his visit to Timor-Leste, Dr Balakrishnan announced the establishment of the Singapore mission in the country’s capital and witnessed the launch of a Singapore community association. The association aims to create a “vibrant, supportive community” for Singaporeans working and living in Timor-Leste. The head of the Singapore Community Association, Jonathan Lim, hopes that with the upcoming resident embassy and this new association, more Singaporeans will live and work in Timor-Leste.
Dr Balakrishnan called on Singaporeans to support Timor-Leste as it prepares to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the near future. He noted that Singapore sent peacekeeping forces when Timor-Leste was experiencing a crisis and sent policemen to help establish a police force in the country. The Singapore residents in the country include pioneers who have been living there for more than two decades, representing “the best of what Singapore can offer.”
