Community gets new ambulance after 20 years

NEARLY 20 years after its ambulance broke down, the Inu community in Kutubu, Southern Highlands, has received a replacement.
The community got the ambulance and a generator for the school.
Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) and its subsidiary Petroleum Resources Kutubu (PRK) delivered them over the weekend.
MRDC managing director Augustine Mano, chief operating officer John Tuwaim, PRK chairman John Kapi Natto, and PRK director Johnny Yawari travelled to Kutubu to hand over the assets to the people of the lakeside community.
The Inu Health Centre was built in the 1950s by the Evangelical Church of PNG to cater for a community of fewer than 6,000 people.
Today, it serves more than 13,000.
Its last ambulance went out of service in 2001.
“The population has grown,” the health centre’s officer in charge Rodney Alu said.
“We really struggle to serve the people.
“Referring the seriously ill to hospital in Tari or Mendi and attending to mothers in labour has been a huge challenge for the rural clinic and its seven health workers.
“This ambulance is a huge relief for us.
“It’s the best Christmas gift for the people here.
“The labour ward is small and has capacity to deal with only one woman at a time.
“But most times, it deals with three or four at a time.
“One of our biggest needs is to upgrade this ward.
“We need to bring in additional staff, to meet the increase in demand,” Alu said.
At Kutubu Secondary School, a 165kVA generator was commissioned.
The electricity generated would enable students to study at night, use computers and have access to the internet to enhance learning.