for the past few months we’ve been back in Papua New Guinea (PNG), continuing to be part of health patrols in some very remote parts of the country. This season has been particularly memorable for the immense amount of rainfall during the weeks out in Western Province; this made it harder to reach people with clinic as many people, understandably, stayed home during the days of downpours that flooded villages. It meant some interesting boat rides getting pierced by rain, though we didn’t have to worry about having enough water for drinking or showing which was a novelty.
A very rainy 2.5 hour boat trip down river.
One really special thing we’ve been able to do in these past patrols is team up with members of World Vision’s ‘Stop TB program’. Unfortunately, TB, tuberculosis, continues to be a huge problem in PNG, particularly in Western Province. The work these guys do is amazing; on these patrols they conducted TB education, did follow-ups with known cases as well as people with previously negative samples, and helped train local people in the village as TB support workers who can then assist patients with their daily medication, and help identify possible TB cases in the village. Over the years running the lab on our ship, TB has become something I’m passionate about, and it was a cool opportunity to see these guys in action and continue to help be part of bringing these services to people.
PNG has also recently recorded a few cases of measles, which has prompted a country-wide supplementary immunisation campaign to give every child under five another dose of the measles-rubella vaccine, as well as the oral polio vaccine. For our clinics this has been on top of routine immunisations for children less than 5, and that means I’ve spent a lot of recent clinic days preparing vaccines and assisting with the registration of all these kids.
One of the health workers in the Bamu River did a particularly animated demonstration of what the polio disease could look like, which helped explain to the kids why they were receiving another needle and helped a few have a chuckle in the process.
The Bamu River patrol team. This trip we invested in wellies (gumboots) and they were fantastic!
Alongside patrols in Western Province, we’ve also had another team on the go with the dental trailer this past quarter, facilitating a school dental program. In PNG there are very few dentists, and oral health care is hard to access even in the nation’s capital. Mellony was part of the second outreach for this quarter while I headed to the Bamu River, but I was able to join for a day before I left. I never thought I’d end up anywhere near a dental clinic, but I was able to spend a day being trained in dental sterilisation which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Dental Trailer Outreach (Photo from YWAM MS)
And that is us for this rotation to PNG; we’re now back in Townsville, getting back into the swing of things here on base. Thank you for your support this past quarter,
PS: If you have any questions about what we’re up to please reach out – we’d love to chat! If you would like to consider donating to help support us financially in the work we do here please check out this link for more details.
Our annual report for 2022 has recently been published! This report gives an overview of what YWAM MS did in PNG during 2022, and this year in particular I think it’s worth a read as it explains well our current outreach model without the ship.