Church shows gratitude for hospitals’ growth

Highlands

A church group in Tari, Hela, has recently carried out a comprehensive clean-up of the provincial hospital grounds and donated fresh vegetables and other food items to the patients.
Church spokesperson Pastor Steven Yanari said this was just the start of what the Kikita Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church would be doing to show its appreciation for the developments taking place at the hospital.
He said most of the church’s members are locals, who have access to the hospital’s services and they have seen positive change-over the past 18 months such as new wards and more medical staff, including doctors which have resulted in better health care.
Yanari heaped praise on the hospital staff, Oil Search Foundation, the Australian Government, Department of Health and other partners for the changes taking place at the hospital and said the church would continue to clean around the hospital. He said they are also planning to build flower gardens.
Hela Provincial Health Authority board members and hospital staff, who were struck by the generous gesture shown by the church members, received the vegetables from the church congregation.
OSF has a strong partnership with the hospital, having helped facilitate the refurbishment of critical infrastructure with more than  US$7 million funding from Oil Search Limited and helping to strengthen the hospital’s financial and human resource systems, among other programmes.
In the 18 months since this landmark assistance, the hospital has dealt with 83,000 patients, performed over 1000
surgeries and safely delivered over 1800 babies.
The hospital serves around 300,000 people around Hela.