Domil progresses with healthy living concept

Highlands

THE healthy island concept which promotes healthy lifestyle and sustainable community living is being progressed in Jiwaka.
An agreement reached between the Domil village Integrated Community Health and Development programme and the Jiwaka health division will allow the Domil concept to be replicated in all wards in Jiwaka in 2017.
Domil is a village in the Nondugl local level government of North Waghi district that organised itself in 1992 to tackle rural poverty, bridge gaps in education, health and community development.
In 2002, Domil was declared a healthy island during the national health conference. It went on to win the Prime Ministers Excellence Award in 2015.
ICHD programme director Bernard Gunn said decisions and service delivery systems at the national level did not reach Domil.
“Basic health care did not reach our community. We were far away. Power of hausman system has been replaced with the Westminster system of government,” Gunn said.
Decentralisation of powers was not effective. We took back the hausman system into our community headed by clan chiefs and women spokespersons and drew up the bottom-up community/ward based plans and actions.”
He said the tribe and clan with hausman and hausmeri made up the community government – a one-stop shop for governance, service delivery, community health and development.
Some of the projects implemented included a day clinic and delivery room, village court and community policing.
They have established co-operatives and groups for group marketing because of limitations and difficulties experienced in finding markets if they go individually.
Their project interventions in agriculture, science and technology include the processing of cassava and sweet potato into flour and stock feed for chickens and pigs.
“We want to make Jiwaka the food basket of PNG by having all farmers based in stations.
“They can farm the land through the out growers scheme or farm on large lands, do central milling, make available processing and packing facilities for downstream processing.”