20 Years Since Voting for Freedom: Village Health in East Timor Today

press release: As East Timor (Timor-Leste) nears the twentieth anniversary of its historic vote for independence, Dr. Dan Murphy returns to Madison to discuss village health in the still-young Southeast Asian nation.

Dr. Dan has provided free medical care in East Timor since 1998. Before that, he worked with Cesar Chavez in the U.S., and practiced medicine in Mozambique, Laos and Nicaragua.

Dr. Dan founded Bairo Pite Clinic in East TImor's capital city. In addition to treating patients, the clinic trains and supports lay midwives who provide maternal and child care in remote areas of the mountainous island nation. Dr. Dan's work has been recognized with the Sergio Vieira de Mello Award and East Timor's Medal of Merit, the country’s highest honor.

In August 1999, the people of East Timor voted to end a brutal, quarter-century-long occupation by the Indonesian military. Following the United Nations-organized referendum, Indonesian military and militias killed more than a thousand East Timorese, displaced hundreds of thousands and destroyed infrastructure across the new nation. While many aid organizations helped Timor for a few years, Dr. Dan and Bairo Pite Clinic remain, building capacity among Timorese staff and providing free health care.

Dr. Dan's Madison talk is organized by the Madison chapter of the East Timor Action Network and Medical Aid East Timor (www.aideasttimor.org).

Info? http://www.aideasttimor.org/