Purple House (Alice Springs) facts for kids

Purple House is a special health service in Alice Springs, Australia. It's run by Indigenous people for Indigenous people. Purple House helps people in remote areas of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and South Australia. They are experts at providing a treatment called dialysis.

How Purple House Started

Purple House was officially started in 2003. It was created by the Pintupi people from the Western Desert. They needed to help their community with a serious health problem. Many Indigenous people were getting very sick with kidney failure.

This meant they had to leave their homes and families. They moved to big towns like Alice Springs for treatment. This made it hard to share their important culture. To help, senior Pintupi artists created many paintings. These artworks were sold at an auction in 2000. They raised over $1 million to start Purple House.

What is Dialysis?

Dialysis is a medical treatment. It helps people whose kidneys are not working well. Kidneys usually clean your blood. If they fail, a machine does this job for them. This treatment is very important for staying healthy.

Growing to Help More People

Purple House began offering dialysis in a house in Alice Springs. This house was painted purple, which gave the organisation its name. In 2004, they opened their first remote clinic. It was in a place called Kintore.

Today, Purple House runs 18 other clinics. These are in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and South Australia. They also have two mobile dialysis units. These are called the Purple Trucks. They can travel to very remote areas.

Purple House gets money from different places. This includes donations, their own projects, and government support. In 2019, three new clinics opened. One was Purple House's first clinic in South Australia.

Purple House now offers more than just dialysis. They help with social support and aged care. They also assist people with the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). They even run a business called Bush Balm. This business uses traditional Indigenous knowledge about bush medicine.

In 2018, a big change happened. After many years of asking, the Australian government agreed. They would pay for dialysis in very remote areas through Medicare. This helps many more people get the care they need.

Awards and Recognition

Purple House has received many important awards. In 2016, they won an Indigenous Governance Award. This award is from Reconciliation Australia. In 2018, they were named Telstra NT Business of the Year.

The CEO of Purple House is Sarah Brown AM. She received an Order of Australia in 2020. This was for her great work in community health. It also recognised her nursing in remote areas. In 2017, she was named Hesta Australia’s Nurse of the Year. In 2018, she was on the AFR BOSS magazine’s ‘True Leaders’ list.