Irzal Rakhmadani
A Doctor Working through the Smoke

After the noon prayers, Irzal Rakhmadani, 24, packed his things in a rucksack and went out. Two items he never goes without are his stethoscope and sphygmometer. He would ride on his motorbike to the office of the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, three kilometers away. There, he would treat people suffering from the effects of forest fire smoke around Palangkaraya. In 2015, he treated some 1,000 patients.

In mid-September, Irzal and his colleagues visited a camp for workers who had been laid off by an oil palm company. Fifteen volunteers of Earth Hour Palangkaraya had gathered to help the smoke victims there. Irzal saw something that distressed him. About 300 people were crammed into a 5x15 meter barrack. Because there was not enough room, tarpaulin tents had been set up outside the barracks. People lived alongside chicken and their pet dogs.

December 29, 2015