Yarrabah Aboriginal community has been working with Australian skin care brand MooGoo to try and stamp out Rheumatic Heart Disease with the MooGoo Prevent RHD Project.
Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is a devastating but preventable condition that often starts with skin sores that get infected. Australia has some of the highest rates in the world, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 15 times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease than other Australians.
Complications from RHD are common and include atrial fibrillation, endocarditis, heart failure, stroke and lead to damage so severe that the child needs open heart surgery.
Of the 4,000 people living in the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah, at least 129 people have RHD. The community's residents live in just over 400 homes 55km east of Cairns, in difficult living conditions which can be cramped, with limited access to safe water and sanitary conditions.
RHD is not a genetic condition, but a disease of poverty and disadvantage, caused primarily by overcrowding and unhealthy housing. A lack of basic plumbing in many houses is also contributing to the RHD issue.
The partnership with MooGoo is assisting the Yarrabah community battle skin sores that can lead to RHD. MooGoo donated a year's worth of its body wash for every household in Yarrabah.
Initially the partnership with MooGoo was for 12 months and allowed access for all community members to MooGoo Body Milk Wash. Recently this offer was extended under the MooGoo customer donation/ support campaign.
In collaboration with Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Aboriginal Corporation, refill stations of the Milk Wash are now easily accessible in community hubs, schools and sports clubs in the area.
Maddy Dodd, child health team leader Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Aboriginal Corporation, said: "We know that skin sores are common in Yarrabah."
"If we can prevent the infection from occurring at the beginning, and prevent the skin sores, we can help reduce the devastating effects of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in our communities."
Suzanne Andrews, from the Jaru, Punaba and Bunal Bardi peoples of Western Australia's North Kimberley region and chief executive of Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Yarrabah also welcomes the collaboration.
"This is all about making sure that we have good sanitising soaps and it's awesome we've got special sites that we can start to dispense to the mob in Yarrabah to help prevent skin sores," she said.
MooGoo chief executive Melody Livingstone said it is "really disturbing to discover that in Australia people in remote communities were having trouble accessing basic essentials like soap".
"It was shocking not only to me, but the entire management team and we wanted to do something about it and look for a solution," she said.
"We're hoping that through this programme, we see a reduction in rheumatic heart disease cases in these communities and that these statistics can be used to put in place a more permanent solution."
Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Public Health Coordinator Renee Grosso said MooGoo's collaboration with the local organisations and people in an Aboriginal community, is "a great way of demonstrating genuine commitment and desire to work with our First Nations people in a meaningful way".
"It also demonstrates MooGoo is not 'doing' something to the community but actually working 'with' them, in a way that actually meets the needs identified by the community themselves," she said.
The partnership between Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service Aboriginal Corporation and MooGoo has already created great excitement as well as positive results in the Yarrabah community.
Ms Grosso has worked closely with community and the Child Health Team and RHD Health Workers to ensure this offer was fully utilised.
"Unfortunately, RHD is a real issue in Yarrabah and whilst we cannot control many of the social situations that contribute to repeated Staph infections, what we have been able to do with the support of MooGoo, is provide community members with quality skin and body care product that has assisted them to combat the skin sores and infections that can lead to Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) and RHD," she said. "Feedback is overwhelmingly positive."
The number of community members accessing the range of MooGoo product is high, with already more than 5,500 x 500ml bottles and refills distributed throughout Yarrabah. Distribution and refill stations have been established not just at the two health service clinics but also several high-profile public areas and businesses.
