Sisca Wiguno, Resilience of a Doctor

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Sisca Wiguno

Sisca Wiguno has been a doctor for 14 years. During this time, she has traveled to treat sick people in inland regions and conflict areas, even as far as the base of a terrorist group. Today, the 39-year-old is at the forefront of Covid-19 management and control in Maluku.

Sisca is sitting in the corner of a café, her face weary, a cup of hot coffee and a portion of kenari (canarium nuts) in front of her. Coffee and kenari were the perfect pair for her to wind up an exhausting day at the end of July 2020 in Ambon, Maluku.

Since the Covid-19 epidemic emerged, she has been working every day at a fast pace and under pressure, while she has barely enough time for a break. Many things must be done, from processing data, giving her professional opinion, speaking at meetings and virtual programs, preparing answers to questions from the public, and to correcting misleading information about Covid-19. Before heading to the café that evening, she was asked to go to the Maluku Governor’s Office and provide input for the draft gubernatorial regulation on Covid-19 management.

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Sisca has been involved in Covid-19 management and control since a suspected Covid-19 case was found in February in Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands regency. She became even busier after the first Covid-19 case in Maluku was announced on 22 March. She contributed to the effort to set up a number of quarantine facilities in several areas to overcome the shortage of health facilities in Maluku.

Not long after the quarantine facilities were ready, Maluk saw an explosion of Covid-19 cases and its hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Haulussy Regional General Hospital of Ambon, the last bastion for serving the 1.8 million people of Maluku, was closed after dozens of medical workers became infected with Covid-19. Fortunately, the quarantine facilities had been prepared to anticipate such a condition.

The Maluku provincial administration has expressed appreciation for Sisca’s work. “She plays a major role in supporting Covid-19 management in Maluku. She can be invited to discussions or asked to give [her] input at any time,” said Maluku administrative secretary Kasrul Selang, who is also the daily chairman of the Maluku Covid-19 Rapid Response Task Force.

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Sisca, who hails from Karawaci, Banten, was first assigned to Maluku in 2017 as a health officer of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She specialized in malaria and immunization programs and worked in cooperation with the local health office. She frequently traveled to villages and has visited over a dozen islands.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Sisca Wiguno

Through the collaboration with UNICEF, Maluku had been making significant progress towards eliminating malaria. In 2019, Maluku’s annual incidence rate of malaria had declined to 0.71 cases per 1,000 people from 2.95 cases per 1,000 people in 2017. The spread of malaria had also decreased.

In 2019, five of the 11 regencies/cities in Maluku were declared green zones, areas with low malaria endemicity, while the rest were yellow zones, areas with moderate endemicity. Two years earlier in 2017, two regions were red zones (high endemicity), seven were yellow zones and only two were green zones.

“It was the result of the hard work of many people. I didn’t work alone,” said Sisca.

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Sisca made a conscious decision to dedicate herself to isolated and inland areas. While she was still a medical student, she had volunteered to help victims of the 2005 earthquake in Nias, North Sumatra. It was then that she noticed the very minimal health facilities in regions outside Java.

Finishing her studies in 2006, she joined the Bethesda Serukam Foundation in West Kalimantan. Through the foundation, she served patients in remote communities for 2.5 years, traveling to villages by small aircraft, by foot and by river.

She feels satisfaction at being a doctor when she can help people in need who live a long way from health facilities. This was the dream she had cherished from senior high school, when she had tended to her hospitalized father, Santoso Wiguno, until his eventual death.

It was the result of the hard work of many people. I didn’t work alone

Her mother Reni Tanujaya and her two elder sisters, Irine Wiguno and Silvia Wiguno, all supported Sisca’s dream to become a physician. She applied to Jakarta’s Trisakti University and was accepted.

“My father had died, so my sisters saved their money for my tuition. After I graduated, they didn’t mind that I chose this path,” she said.

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KOMPAS/ARSIP PRIBADI

Sisca Wiguno

Terrorist hub

After attending to her duties in inland areas, Sisca took on a new challenge. She applied to Médecins Sans Frontìères (MSF; Doctors Without Borders), an international humanitarian and medical NGO, to provide medical assistance in conflict areas. Sisca was hired and sent to Sri Lanka in 2010. Later, she was sent to other countries with even greater challenges, like Nigeria.

In Nigeria, she was based in the city of Maiduguri in Borno state, where the Boko Haram jihadist terrorist group is based. Many cases of cholera there were left untreated. In hospital rooms, patients mixed with goats. She worked under precarious security conditions. “We had to return to the hotel at six in the evening,” she recalled of the curfew imposed in Maiduguri.

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While on holiday back in Indonesia, she received news that an Indonesian doctor working with the MSF had been shot in Somalia. The news also reached her mother through the media. Although worried, her mother continued to support Sisca’s work with the MSF.

“’It’s all right, Mama is proud of having a child like you. When we had a hard time after Papa died, God allowed us to survive and made you a doctor. So, you can just offer your service anywhere. What’s important is to take good care of yourself,’” said Sisca, recalling her mother’s words.

It’s all right, Mama is proud of having a child like you.

Her mother’s support helped ease her conscience in taking her next assignment in Pakistan. There, she was in charge in Islamabad, Peshawar and Hangu district, near the border with Afghanistan. The military were active in several areas that saw frequent sectarian conflicts. She and her team often treated victims of war.

Her last assignment was in Tehran, Iran. Afterwards, she returned to Indonesia to reflect and enjoy a different environment.

“While I was in charge in high-risk regions, I always received assistance at the right time. I believe that this was in response to what I had done. Those good deeds will spread,” she said.

Sisca Wiguno

Education:

- Public Health Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan (2012-2014)

- Medical Faculty, Trisakti University (1999-2006)

Occupation:

- Health Officer in Maluku, UNICEF Indonesia (2017)

- Médecins Sans Frontières: Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran (2010-2017)

- Bethesda Serukam Hospital, West Kalimantan (2006-2009)

- Obor Berkat Indonesia (2006).