The Wire

A project that’s training up ‘young doctors’ under the age of 10 in Aboriginal communities aims to improve health outcomes.

Research shows that aboriginal children face a shorter life expectancy and can be more at risk of blindness and deafness.But now the “Young Doctors” program is using games and lessons to teach kids about traditional bush medicine, and basic hygiene – the importance of things like washing hands, cleaning noses, wearing clean clothes, and eating healthy food. Similar schemes exist in Indonesia, where “child doctors” were credited with preventing a cholera outbreak after the 2004,  Aceh tsunami.