 PULIH MARI BALI WUTUH PURNA WALUYA JATI  Henny Yudea: Lembaga Studi Kesehatan Masyarakat (Lessan) Heny Yudea: Rujukan Jamu TradisionalOleh Mawar Kusuma Wulan Lembaga Studi Kesehatan Masyarakat (Lessan) telah menjadi rujukan pemuda dari berbagai negara untuk datang ke Indonesia dan belajar mengenai jamu tradisional secara gratis. Selama 20 tahun terakhir Lesssan aktif mengumpulkan resep pengobatan tradisional berdasarkan kearifan lokal dari penduduk lanjut usia di pedesaan. Resep mengenai jamu tersebut dibukukan dan dibagikan secara gratis sebagai wahana tukar pengetahuan sekaligus melestarikan resep obat tradisional. Hingga kini telah terbit tiga buku resep pengobatan tradisional yang dikumpulkan dari 13 dusun di pelosok lereng Gunung Merapi, Kabupaten Sleman, dan Kecamatan Tepus, Kabupaten Gunung Kidul, DI Yogyakarta. Upaya pendokumentasian kekayaan obat tradisional ini telah membawa pendiri Lessan, Heny Yudea (38), sebagai salah satu dari 1.000 Perempuan Perdamaian Dunia pada 2005. Kantor Lessan di Jl. Kaliurang Km. 9.8 Palgading Sinduharjo Ngaglik Sleman, sekaligus menjadi toko obat tradisional dan rumah tinggal Heny. Saat berbincang dengan Kompas, dia ditemani oleh Ketua Lessan Dewo Broto (47) dan Ira Tohjoyo (38). Mereka begitu antusias memperbincangkan pelestarian obat tradisional. Menurut istilah mereka, pekerjaan itu tidak ada uangnya dan membutuhkan idealisme tinggi. Di ruang tamu kantor Lessan, foto-foto para lansia berusia di atas 70 tahun menghiasi seluruh sisi dinding ruangan seluas 20 meter persegi itu. Dari merekalah, Lessan menimba ilmu tentang pemanfaatan obat-obatan tradisional yang kemudian diwariskan kepada warga di dusun lain. Tiap wilayah memiliki keunikan resep tradisional yang cenderung makin hilang karena tak lagi terwariskan kepada generasi muda. Dikira dukun  Kini 526 petani di Jawa Tengah dan DI Yogyakarta dibina untuk menanam tanaman obat tradisional, 153 di antaranya telah mampu meramu tanaman obat. Mayoritas dari mereka adalah kaum perempuan yang diajak kembali ke pengobatan tradisional. ”Kami prihatin karena citra jamu masih marjinal dan terkesan ilegal, padahal telah ratusan tahun digunakan nenek moyang. Bahkan, kami sempat dikira dukun tiban,” kata Heny, Sabtu (29/8) lalu. Tak sekadar mendokumentasikan dalam bentuk buku, Heny dan rekan-rekannya juga getol mengampanyekan pemanfaatan obat tradisional kepada masyarakat. Kampanye ini telah menjangkau seluruh warga di kelompok masyarakat yang menjadi binaan Lessan. Beberapa sekolah dasar pun turut menjadi sasaran kampanye. Heny acap kali diundang menjadi pembicara di berbagai seminar, lembaga pendidikan, gereja, dan organisasi masyarakat di Jerman, Thailand, dan negara lain. Di seminar-seminar tersebut Heny mengenalkan kekayaan hayati Indonesia serta mengampanyekan antipencurian berupa pematenan obat tradisional oleh perusahaan besar. Saat ini sebanyak 42 resep tradisional telah dipatenkan perusahaan di Amerika dan Jepang. Sejak tiga tahun terakhir hasil panen tanaman obat tradisional dari wilayah binaan Lessan telah diekspor ke Austria. Meskipun skala ekspornya masih kecil, 2 ton per tahun, seluruh tahapan ekspor diterangkan ke petani secara transparan sehingga mereka belajar tentang konsep perdagangan yang adil. Tawaran ekspansi ekspor jamu tradisional telah mulai berdatangan dari berbagai negara, termasuk dari Jepang. Heny mengakui, warga di kelompok binaan lembaganya belum sanggup memproduksi dalam jumlah massal dengan tuntutan standar kualitas tinggi. Apalagi, mereka menghindari sistem pertanaman monokultur yang justru akan merusak keseimbangan alam. Pertanaman obat tradisional terus dipertahankan dengan menggunakan sistem tumpang sari. Lembaga tersebut telah membuka empat klinik pengobatan tradisional di lereng Merapi. Awalnya klinik ini sempat dicurigai oleh masyarakat sebagai tempat praktik ”dukun tiban”. Di sela saling membagi ilmu kesehatan tradisional, Lessan juga memperkuat pengorganisasian masyarakat di 13 dusun yang dibina. Anak muda dari berbagai negara, seperti dari Kanada, Amerika Serikat, Jerman, Perancis, Belgia, Australia, dan Jepang yang datang untuk belajar ke Lessan pun selalu diajak belajar dari warga di dusun-dusun tersebut. Umumnya mereka itu dikirim oleh lembaga pendidikan atau organisasi untuk penulisan skripsi maupun karya tulis. Di Jerman bahkan telah terbentuk kelompok anak muda yang menamakan diri sebagai ”Sahabat Lessan”. Menolak bantuan Heny berulang kali menegaskan bahwa kerja bertahun-tahun yang dirintisnya sepenuhnya merupakan kerja kelompok. Namun, ibu satu anak ini menolak berbincang lebih jauh tentang seluk-beluk kehidupan pribadi, termasuk riwayat pendidikannya. Baginya, berbincang tentang pelestarian obat tradisional tidak bisa menonjolkan peran satu orang. ”Ini karya masyarakat, kami hanya mengumpulkan resep dari mereka,” ungkapnya. Heny yang selalu enggan menonjolkan diri ini mengaku ingin membawa Lessan menjadi lembaga kecil, tetapi berkualitas. Beberapa kali Lessan menolak pendanaan dalam jumlah yang dinilai terlalu besar yang diberikan oleh lembaga dari luar negeri. Dana yang ditolak itu antara lain berupa bantuan hibah senilai Rp 500 juta per enam bulan. Sejak berdiri pada tahun 1990 Lessan memperoleh dana hibah dari TdH Jerman. Lembaga itu juga menghidupi dirinya sendiri dari bagi hasil ekspor jamu tradisional serta penjualan padi organik dari lahan seluas 1.500 meter persegi. ”Jika terlalu banyak dana, takutnya nanti kami malah ngiler melihat tumpukan uang. Kami tidak ingin bergantung pada funding. Ini kekayaan negara kita, jadi harus kita yang pegang kendali,” kata Heny.  Bagi orang-orang seperti mereka, uang memang bukan tujuan utama. Heny mengatakan, seluruh kerja kerasnya terbayar ketika warga mulai mau kembali ke obat-obatan tradisional dan bisa mendapat kesembuhan. Di Kabupaten Gunung Kidul, misalnya, seorang warga desa yang telah menjual satu sapi untuk pengobatan sakit migren justru sembuh setelah mengonsumsi ramuan tradisional. Lessan sendiri lahir dari keprihatinan terhadap kesulitan masyarakat pedesaan untuk mengakses obat kimia. Apalagi, harga obat semakin mahal dan tidak ramah lingkungan. Bersama tujuh orang anggota timnya, Lessan terus berupaya memandirikan masyarakat dengan obat sendiri. Mereka berkeyakinan bahwa setiap penyakit pasti dilengkapi dengan obat-obatan yang tumbuh di sekitarnya. Biodata
Peta Lokasi Henny Yudea – Indonesia She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.  She works for Health Study Institute (Lessan). Henny Yudea (born 1968) is a health rights activist. Her main interest is developing traditional medicines, which she believes is an answer to the health problems of poor people. Herbal medicines can be made from ingredients which are mostly cheap and easily accessible to many. She works with hundreds of farmers, including women, encouraging them to plant herbs, and educates them in ways to develop medicines and secure a better future that stems from better health. Henny Yudea recalls: “I started my work in the late 1980s when villages surrounding Yogyakarta were going through hard times and the economic situation wasn’t good. The government was so repressive that people couldn’t express their opinions and views as citizens.” As a young activist, she wanted to help people cope with their situation and live better. In 1990, she joined Lessan, or the Health Study Institute, as a field worker. She worked alongside the people to educate them on health problems and ways to solve them. “At that time, when a man was sick, he had to go find some cure. When he came back healthy, he no longer had anything left.” This is ironic, she says, given that the country’s Constitution guarantees the welfare of the people. But the reality is that to be sick is an expensive affair, assuming hospitals and medical services are within reach. The problem is when people who are sick are poor and are living in remote villages, as in many villages in Indonesia. This condition prompted Henny and her friends to look for ways to provide cheap health services. “We witnessed unfair conditions, but we also saw a local capacity which was still untapped. Traditional medicines became our preference, because ingredients were easily available and curing people with them carry small side effects. All these medicines have been used for a long time by our ancestors.” So Henny and her colleagues began their research into traditional cures. Working with villagers who live far from cities and modern health care, they collected prescriptions that they printed in booklets and distributed to their program beneficiaries. They also set up health posts where people receive treatment as well as information on how to heal themselves. “We believe Indonesia is richly endowed with natural resources and traditional wisdom. We must be able to learn all that and use them for the welfare of the people and the preservation of the environment,” Henny says. But she realizes that it is no easy task to reconstruct many of the nation’s traditional medicinal recipes. “I am afraid many traditional medicines will be lost,” she says. She points to another grim fact which is more structural in nature, such as how big medical companies overseas can potentially prevent local people like her from developing further traditional medicines because big corporations have patented them. Henny and her friends have worked in the area of traditional medicine for 15 years, conducting research and development on herbal medicines, giving training to people and opening health posts where people learn to heal themselves using ingredients available in their surroundings. Their services range from mixing medicines for adults to developing potions for children. Henny also helps women farmers organize themselves. They are aware that their work should not only focus on helping poor people organize themselves, or pushing the government to build health infrastructure in villages, but also on pressing for the development of pro-poor policies on public health. According to Henny, good health is vital for poor farmers who rely on their bodily strength to earn a living. She says she admires many aged farmers who still possess physical strength. Her greatest joy in seeing people healed with medicines she and her friends made. Henny and her friends realize that the issues they are working on need extra support from other members of the civil society. Lessan networks with the NGO Forum of Yogyakarta, which organizes common advocacies in Yogyakarta; the Yogyakarta Health Alliance, a network of health observers; and Walhi, the national forum of environmental NGOs. Lessan is also a part of regional Working Group for Biodiversity for ASEAN, and has a 15-year partnership with Terre des Hommes Germany and Eine Welt Laden Germany.“Although the situation is better now (compared to the early 1990s), there still are the suspicions against NGOs. We are often accused of selling people’s poverty,” Henny says, adding, “but the spirit and determination of the people we are working with really keep us going. Their wisdom in living truly gives us a good lesson of life.” Aside from learning from the people, Henny says she also learns a lot from friends working on the field. Honesty and supportive behaviour help activists survive the often harsh working environment. She and her friends have learned what social solidarity and taking the side of the poor mean. On women issues, Henny says the conditions in Java are much better then in the outer islands. Since the government decided to decentralize, however, many conflicts that used to be only in the center have entered the local level. This has raised concern in Lessan. “There are many conflicts in our society these days. Women often become the victims. But these conflicts are not people’s conflicts, but the conflicts of the elite. Elite interests often hurt poor people’s interests, including their health.” she says. Henny says more women should enter politics and play their political roles more actively. “Women’s issues are very delicate, more women must be involved in governance. Otherwise, men will remain dominant, rendering many issues related to women’s welfare unattended,” she says. “I really hope Indonesia can be a peaceful nation with its diversity and with a space for women to actively play a part in it.” |
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