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Newsletter · October 2026

An Occasional
Rural Miscellany

Young rural doctors from Indonesia, stories from Africa, poems from Kentucky — and the month's best rural health reading.

From the field · Indonesia

A new breed of rural doctors

Dr Dewanto Andoko
Dr Dewanto Andoko Family Medicine Specialist · RuralWONCA Council

PhD scholar at Khon Kaen University, building rural GP training pathways for Indonesia and a rural palliative care module for the Rural Institute of Learning. Runs RuralWONCA's website and social media.

Dr Andoko with children in Oebelo Clinic in Oebelo village hall
Oebelo, 2018
“You do not bring medicine into a village. You are let in, if you are lucky, and only after admitting how much you do not know.”
Dr Agustinus Rudolf Phyma (dr. Puji)
Dr Agustinus Rudolf Phyma “dr. Puji” · Head, Puskesmas Kanggime, Highland Papua
  • 2018 Posted to Puskesmas Kuari — solar power, no internet for two years, supplies once a month.
  • 2021→ Rebuilt Puskesmas Kanggime: a wooden hut to a 30-strong, nationally accredited clinic.
  • 10,313 people across 308 km².
Children running with dr. Puji in Nunggawi
A Morning in Nunggawi
“A doctor in Papua's highlands spends most days treating what has gone wrong. This photograph holds the other half of the job: watching children get to be exactly what children are built to be.”
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AfriWON Renaissance · August 2026

Family Medicine Where It Matters Most

BotswanaRakops Youth Service Centre — teen pregnancy & reproductive health
KenyaTenwek Hospital's apprenticeship model for rural family physicians
NigeriaFamily physicians + traditional leaders mobilising communities
UgandaBuliisa HC IV outreach — care at the homestead
TanzaniaContinuity of care and cost barriers on the frontline
Dr Nantale Atangwa Peace
Dr Nantale Atangwa Peace · Editor in Chief, Karamoja, Uganda
Online joint event · 13 Dec 2026 · 8 panellists
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In memoriam · 1934 – 2026

Wendell Berry

Kentucky farmer, poet and defender of rural communities. Author of 50+ books.

The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound …
I come into the peace of wild things …
For a time I rest in the grace of the world
and am free.
Wendell Berry
Listen & read

Podcasts & papers

40+ papers summarised

Rural & Remote Health, The Lancet, Nature, NEJM, Annals of Family Medicine and more — with links.

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