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Committee

Dr Smathi Chong

Chair

Smathi is a Clinical Microbiologist in a private laboratory and an Infectious Diseases Physician Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) at a number of private hospitals in Perth. He trained in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. He also completed a Diploma of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene in Liverpool, UK. Smathi first went to West Timor in 2009 and since 2011, has been involved in capacity building in the Microbiology laboratory at Prof Johannes Hospital in Kupang. He has also presented lectures at a number of workshops at Prof Johannes Hospital and the Kupang Health Polytechnic. Originally from Malaysia, he also helps with translation and interpretation for the FOHG team.

Dr Brett Ritchie

Vice Chair

Brett is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist with an interest in tropical medicine.
He has been visiting West Timor since 2006 and is committed to improving the health of children by supporting local health initiatives in medical education and training. “It is the close personal and professional friendships developed over many years that keep me returning to West Timor”.

Trish Green

Secretary

Trish is a retired Medical Scientist with 37 years experience in Medical laboratories and 27 years in Microbiology alone.
Trish first visited West Timor in 2016 and has provided training, expertise and on-going laboratory support in the area of Microbiology at Prof Johannes Hospital in Kupang ever since. Trish has also presented lectures at Kupang Health Polytechnic. Trish now lectures at two tertiary institutes in Western Australia continuing her passion of teaching and imparting knowledge and giving back to others.

Chris Taylor

Treasurer

Chris joined the FOHG committee in 2011. He moved with his family from Tasmania in 1973 to take a position teaching economics and running athletics at St Peter’s College. While it was not the intention, he remained at the school until retirement at the end of 2011, after holding a range of leadership positions in the school during that period. As International Baccalaureate coordinator he established an annual trip by boys to Fiji in 2006 (10th trip in 2015) where they spend time building housing and infrastructure for local homeless people. After teaching he has remained involved with the IB as an educator and consultant. As an economist he has some appreciation of the issues facing developing countries.

Dr Gillian Marshman

Committee member

Gill was ,until her recent retirement from clinical work,Senior Visiting Dermatologist at Flinders Medical Centre.,Southern Adelaide Health Network and Associate Professor, Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health.
She began visiting West Timor in 2005 to set up a programme to up-skill local health care professionals in skin diseases.
Her academic interests and projects have included a collaborative project with the University of Undana Medical School ,Prof Johannes Hospital and the public health department describing scabies prevalence in regional NTT. She is currently assisting in the development of a data base relating to leprosy.
She has been involved in teaching medical students, junior doctors, other specialists and mentoring doctors in the areas of recognition of skin disorders, effective treatment and wider public health implications of dermatological diseases in the community. She has been involved in supporting the development of a multidisciplinary cancer service at Prof Johannes Hospital in Kupang and supporting the  ongoing development of the Pathology Department in the Hospital, and is committed to engaging with doctors, nurses and the community to improve access to effective health care at all levels in NTT.
Ideally ,with programmes based on sustainable health care through broader and targeted education she would like to see herself as redundant in the next few years…

Dr Helen Bradley

Committee member

Helen has been involved with maternal and neonatal health in Indonesia for many years. As a Senior Lecturer at the UniSA she facilitated visits to Adelaide for Indonesian Hospital Administration and Management staff and worked as a consultant in Jakarta for the World Health Organisation, evaluating the Indonesian Ministry of Health, 'Making Pregnancy Safer' program.
Together with other FOHG staff, Helen convened the current maternal and neonatal health program on Flores with an AusAID grant in 2008. Currently an Adjunct lecturer in Nursing and Midwifery at UniSA, she has worked and researched in Timor Leste, the Philippines, Laos and Aboriginal Australia. Helen provides sessions in Global Health for young health professionals wishing to work overseas.
As the Team leader of the FOHG program for Maternal & Neonatal Health, she is currently facilitating Obstetric teams in both emergency obstetrics and ultrasound programs for the remote areas of Flores and the new SOE clinic on West Timor.

Richard Turnbull

Committee member and Public Officer

Richard is a retired medical laboratory scientist with qualifications in agricultural science. After graduating from Roseworthy Agricultural College in the late 1960's, he served as a National Serviceman in the Australia army as a pathology laboratory technician. This included service in Vietnam at the 1 Australia Field Hospital. This lead onto completing a degree at UniSA in medical laboratory science. His career in laboratory science has included over 30 years with the IMVS/SA Pathology working in a wide variety of positions in clinical biochemistry, microbiology, histopathology, haematology and transfusion medicine, working in both city and regional laboratories. For over half his career he has been working in veterinary laboratory services in diagnostic, applied research and management positions.
During this period he has worked on overseas development projects in Indonesia, volunteered on disaster response operations with the Red Cross (Ethiopia and Thailand), CARE International (Kenya and Rwanda) and AUSMAT (Banda Aceh). His roles have included field laboratory operations, nutritional assessment, logistics and procurement, training and education. In recent years his has made regular visits to both Timor Leste and West Timor, mostly with FOHG medical training teams. This work has involved laboratory support to remote district hospitals and central provincial hospitals, particularly in the area of microbiology education and training. Currently he is involve with co-ordinating the technical and logistical aspects of FOHG's major birthing centre project at Soe in West Timor.

Brendan Kennedy

Committee member

Brendan is an Infectious Diseases Physician with an interest in HIV and viral hepatitis, zoonotic diseases and public health. He has completed a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and has worked in South Australia, including at the Communicable Disease Control Branch for SA Health, Far North Queensland, Kenya and Papua New Guinea. He first travelled to West Timor in 2018 with FOHG and continues to be involved in capacity building through educational activities and supporting local health initiatives.

Yohanes Sebastianus (Nus)

Committee member

Liaison Officer, Training Instructor, Translator/Interpreter, Independent Consultant
• Train, deliver and facilitate training for midwives in the area of andragogy, teaching and learning instructions.
• Provide support for the organisation in professional development activities for midwives in Maternal and Neonatal Health program in Nagekeo District.
• Liaise with local governments to assist the organization with its activities to achieve sustainable health through education for health staff.
• Assist the organization in the assessment and evaluation of training activities.

Sr Bernadete

Committee member

S. Bernadete, RVM belongs to the RVM Congregation from Manila, Philippines. She graduated from nursing and continues her study in Masteral Arts of Gerontology. She is a nurse, her specialisation is as a Gerontologist, and Geriatrict Nurse. She has been taking care of the elderly and the sick since 2002. She is committed to serving the sick and the poor. She has been serving Muder Ignacia Hospital since 2026 up to now.

Ann Maree Parker

Committee member

Ann Maree is a registered nurse and registered midwife who began traveling to Indonesia to teach midwives advanced life support in obstetrics. Ann Maree was introduced to this program by her late husband Dr Peter Scott and travelled with him to Flores, Kupang and refugee camps on the Thai/Burmer boarder.

Dr David O’Rourke

MB BS FRACGP FARGP FRANZCOG MRMed MWom HMed

Obstetrician and Gynaecologist located in Canberra and working in both public and private sectors.
Areas of clinical practice are obstetrics, gynaecology with special interests in key hole (laparoscopic surgery) and fertility including IVF management.

David was originally a rural general practitioner in NSW Australia with procedural skills in anaesthetics and obstetrics and followed this course for a few years.
Eventually, he pursued specialist Obstetrics and Gynaecology training in Canberra (2003 – 2006 ) and Adelaide (2007 – 2008).
In 2007 a chance meeting occurred with a general surgeon who had a long association with FOHG and clinical work in West Timor. This meeting resulted in two educational trips to Ende (2009) and Keffamenanu (2010) and the discovery that there was a long term goal to build a maternity hospital in a town called Soe. David and his wife Sue-Ann offered the fundraising and together with the rest of the FOHG team the Mother Ignacia Hospital (Muder Ignacia) was opened on the 10th June 2016. This was just the beginning of now an expansion phase to create a 50 bed hospital that will cater for general admissions but also concentrate on maternal and child health. David is committed to the goal of the Mother Ignacia Hospital becoming a self sufficient centre of health education and clinical practice.