By 2018, a Nobleboro man hopes to eradicate malaria from three villages in Indonesia and prevent more than 1,000 people from having to worry about the disease.
Jack Kennedy is the director and general partner of Health Access Sumbawa, an organization founded with the purpose of eliminating malaria from three isolated villages in Indonesia, as well as building and maintaining a health clinic and, eventually, a community development center.
Kennedy’s interest in tropical diseases can be traced back to his childhood, when he moved around the South Pacific and Southeast Asia with his father, a specialist in tropical medicine. From the age of 5 until he was 12, Kennedy traveled to Guam, Palau, and Thailand, observing how his father treated diseases in different villages and cultures.
“It was always very fascinating to me,” Kennedy said. “I guess you could say it was in my blood!”
Kennedy attended a boarding school in Australia from the ages of 12 to 14 before returning to Massachusetts to complete his high school education. After graduating from business school, Kennedy looked for opportunities to work in Asia. He began doing some manufacturing and importing work in Indonesia and the South Pacific, which led him to acquire a piece of property in the village of Bali. Over the years, Kennedy built Honey Tree Villa, a home he rents to travelers.
“It tends to attract those who are interested in the authentic Balinese experience,” Kennedy said. “It’s a green-designed building that opens completely to the jungle behind it. It’s a sort of glamorous camping.”
Kennedy remained interested in finding another piece of property to build on in Indonesia, this time, near a beach. In February 2014, Kennedy visited the Indonesian island of Sumbawa and was taken to visit the village of Sili.
“The villagers live very self-sufficient lives,” Kennedy said. “They build their own homes and tend to their own crops. No one has a job outside of the village.”
In addition to not having running water, Kennedy said the village is also very remote, only accessible by a dirt road that is unusable during the wet season, or by boat.
Ten days after he returned to the states from Sumbawa, Kennedy began to get chills.
“At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, really,” Kennedy said. “I just put on a ski cap before going to bed.”
The next morning Kennedy woke up with a fever of 103 and a complete lack of energy. He went to LincolnHealth – Miles Campus, where a blood test confirmed he had malaria, an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
“It was amazing how quickly they found out,” Kennedy said. “They sent a blood sample to the (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and within hours they knew not only that I had malaria, but also what specific kind and exactly how to treat it.”
Kennedy had contracted P. Falciparum malaria, one of the most common and easily treated types of malaria; however, if left untreated, it can also be one of the more deadly types of malaria, Kennedy said.
Kennedy was transferred to Maine Medical Center and the malaria was treated within three days. During his three-week recovery after being released from the hospital, Kennedy’s thoughts turned to the village of Sumbawa and the endemic of malaria.
“Many people in Sili have had the disease and have grown immune to the symptoms,” Kennedy said. “It’s especially dangerous for pregnant women and children under 5, and these isolated villages don’t have the same access to health care that we do. They don’t rush to Maine Med; they go to bed and hope for the best.”
Kennedy began to wonder if it would be possible to remove the threat of malaria from the Sili villagers’ lives. The plan would be to test everyone in the village, even those who were not presenting symptoms; treat the afflicted; and keep everyone malaria-free for three or four weeks to allow the carrier mosquitoes to die out.
“It would be possible to eradicate malaria completely from this village,” Kennedy said. “And that’s incredible.”
Kennedy reached out to Donna Flynn, of Alna, and Pete Skinner, of Chatham, N.Y., to partner with him to create Health Access Sumbawa. Flynn said it was Kennedy’s strong belief in the success of the program that encouraged her to join.
“He is so diligent and earnest about his pursuit of this,” Flynn said. “It’s coming together so beautifully and so quickly, and I think it’s because people understand the value of what Jack is doing.”
In February, Kennedy returned to Sumbawa and ran his idea by Dr. Claus Bogh, the health program director of The Sumba Foundation who holds a PHD in Malaria. The Sumba Foundation is another organization trying to end malaria; however, Kennedy said the foundation focuses on the neighboring island of Sumba where it has a world class malaria microscopy school in addition to three clinics.
“(Bogh) said they have never tried a total elimination strategy in Sumba before,” Kennedy said.” I outlined our plan and he said it should work. He’s really excited for us and is providing us backup if we need it.”
The first step Kennedy and his partners took was to supply villagers of Sili with treated bed nets to sleep under to prevent mosquitoes from biting people while they sleep. Kennedy said although this option was good for pregnant women and children, some villagers remained unprotected as they spent their evenings out in fields protecting crops from wild boars.
The next step would be the testing of all the villagers to identify those who needed treatment for malaria. Kennedy had intended to use rapid diagnostic testing; however, the World Health Organization recently changed the requirements and now requires testing to be done by studying blood on slides under a microscope. The only microscope in Sumbawa was miles away, something Kennedy said was not really an option.
“There was no way we could take the samples in the village, bring them to the lab, and then go back two weeks later to treat the people with malaria,” Kennedy said. “It would be too late.”
Kennedy approached the Sumbawa Health Department to find a solution. The department asked Kennedy to consider taking on the neighboring villages of Macik and Panobu. In exchange, the health department would provide free malaria medication to Health Access Sumbawa. The health department also agreed to provide a staff member to be trained in microscopy alongside the villages’ nurse for free.
The partners of Health Access Sumbawa also started to think about building a clinic in Sili to allow for the blood to be tested on site.
“At first I thought this was going to be a quick test for everyone and then distributing the medication, but now we’re building a clinic and sending the village nurse for training, plus taking on two more villages,” Kennedy said. “It was scary at first, but then I realized we could do this. I didn’t know how, but I knew we could.”
Kennedy said he and his partners have been responsible for most of the funding for the project, however, donations are accepted on the Health Access Sumbawa website. The team is made entirely of volunteers, meaning all the proceeds go directly toward the cost of building the clinic and other expenses.
“I really believe these smaller initiatives can be incredibly successful,” Kennedy said. “For the price of a car, we can eliminate malaria in these three villages.”
Kennedy estimated the total cost of the project, including building the clinic and covering the expenses of the microscopy class, at $30,000 to $40,000.
“This year we have a lot of upfront costs because we’re building the clinic,” Kennedy said. “It’s very doable going forward, but this is a crunch year.”
Health Access Sumbawa hopes to eventually expand the clinic into a community center, which would include a garden, community showers, and toilets.
After their youngest child graduated from college, Kennedy and his wife moved from their home in Connecticut to Nobleboro in 1997. Since 2007, Kennedy has worked as a broker for Drum & Drum Real Estate, of Damariscotta. Kennedy said his work with Health Access Sumbawa has not intruded on his career.
“I go visit in February and March when there’s not a lot going on for real estate in Maine,” Kennedy said. “I work hard when I’m here, go for two months, and come back raring to go.”
Kennedy will return to Sumbawa this February, at which point the clinic will be completed and the microscopy course will be finished. Kennedy said testing and treatment will begin in Sili, before moving on to the other two villages.
“Our goal is to eliminate malaria in three villages in three years,” Kennedy said.
For more information about Health Access Sumbawa, as well as donation information, go to www.healthaccesssumbawa.org.