Health

Kokoda memorial hospital

Kokoda hospitalThis year the Foundation will continue to provide medical assistance to the people living along and around the Kokoda Track. Already this year we have donated resources and supplies to the Kokoda Memorial Hospital where nurses and medical technicians provide medical assistance to those in need. The hospital is given an account with a large medical supplier in Port Moresby and places their own orders according to what they need.

The Kokoda Memorial Hospital is the only hospital servicing the Kokoda Track catchment area – the next closest hospital, Popondetta, is a 4 hour drive away and often cut off from Kokoda village during the wet season due to flooding. Common medical situations faced by the staff at the hospital include malaria, dangerous birth deliveries, and injuries as a result of the harsh environment (e.g. accidents and machete wounds).

The Foundation’s support of the Kokoda Memorial Hospital enables the nurses to continue responding to the health needs of the local communities.

Aid posts

Manari aid postWe will also continue to provide support in the form of medical supply kits to the villages along the Kokoda Track. These kits are invaluable resources to the local communities and are used by villages in the treatment of numerous problems. Health workers access these pre-packaged kits from our resource suppliers, Johnstons Pharmacies in Port Moresby.

After a detailed audit of all aid posts along the Kokoda Track, the Foundation is aware of a number of villages that have “fallen through the cracks” in terms of medical supplies. We will be focussing our energies on those aid posts that are in desperate need of supplies as well as working closely with AusAID and local community organisations to ensure that no villages are missing out on vital health supplies. Our prioty villages in 2010 include Naoro 1, Naoro 2, Naduri, Enivilogo, and Waju villages.

Community health worker training

Health workerIn addition to medical supplies, the Foundation has identified a large number of villages that desperately need trained community health workers. One village along the track has a health worker who had only completed a single first aid course back in the 1970s! Our presence on the ground along the Track means that we are able to direct resources to where they are most needed.

As with teachers in schools, the successful running of a health centre along the Track is largely dependent on being run by trained community health workers and nurses who come from the local village themselves.

In 2010, the Foundation is providing 4 educational opportunities for village members to train as Community Health Workers. The Foundation has partnered with Back Track Adventures to fund 4 students to train as Community Health Workers and they will undertake a 2 year course at Veifa's St Gerard's Community Health Worker Training School out of Port Moresby. The scholarships cover students' tuition fees, boarding and living expenses, and travel to and from their home village. The scholarship recipients will be supported by the Foundation to return to their home communities and work in the aid posts and/or hospital after they have graduated as Community Health Workers.

Click here to read about our Community Health Worker Scholarship students!

 

 

First Aid Training

In 2010, the Foundation will provide first aid training to male and female representatives from villages along the Kokoda Track. Partnering with St John's Ambulance, Port Moresby, we will initially provide training opportunities to the villages that currently do not have qualified health workers. The first aid training is an interim measure to provide health support to villages whilst we wait for our scholarship students who are undertaking their Community Health Worker training to graduate.The Foundation will support village representatives to undertake Senior First Aid and Remote Area First Aid courses.

More details to come about our 2010 First Aid trainees... Watch this space...