Paul Penumala – Goondir Health Services

Paul Penumala is passionately serving rural and remote Indigenous communities in South West Queensland as Executive, Strategy and Planning at Goondir Health Services. Born into a minority family in India, Paul’s diverse life experience, including the ability to speak five languages, has enabled him to connect well with other people. He understands the struggles that people living in remote communities face and has represented these perspectives at many different health forums.

Paul has been highly involved in community projects across the South West Queensland region in Dalby, Oakey, Tara, Chinchilla, Miles, St George, Dirranbandi, Thallon and Bollon. One of his projects included ensuring Indigenous clients with chronic health conditions could access Virtual Health Monitoring Units for free. This was achieved successfully for 205 families and has had a major impact on long-term community health outcomes. The Virtual Health Team can now proactively identify the vulnerable population to avoid hospitalisation.

Paul has also been deeply involved in other projects that empower Indigenous youth and Elders through community inclusion and wellbeing, including the Big Buddy youth empowerment program and the St George Community Wellbeing Centre.