Cooks in charge of hospital kitchen complete course

EIGHT local cooks from the Tari Hospital in Hela have completed a six-month cookery course to run the hospital’s modern kitchen.
A new kitchen was funded through the Australian government’s incentive fund and the Oil Search Foundation (OSF) and was opened by the Prime Minister James Marape last year. However, the hospital’s cooks required training in advanced industrial kitchen skills to work in the kitchen.
The training was funded by the OSF and Peuna PNG, a local company provided the hands-on training on how to safely use, clean and maintain the new kitchen equipment.
After the training the four women and four men now have skills that meet international food safety standards.
Hela health authority chief executive officer Dr James Kintwa said the cooks who completed the training were now skilled workers that the community could be proud of.
“We now have local people who cannot only use a state-of-the-art industrial kitchen equipment but can contribute towards a speedy patient recovery process by preparing nutritious food,” he said.
“The hospital staff will also have the energy to provide patients with the best clinical care.”
Bernard Philipae, from OSF, said from the outset, one of their core objectives in building the new kitchen was to also build local capacity.
“During the construction stage, we used local contractors and built their capacity to win future tenders by delivering quality capital works projects,” he said.
“Now that the kitchen is operational, it’s exciting to take this one step further and train people to provide key services within the hospital, like kitchen and catering services.”
Peuna PNG country manager Sean Vincin said it was exciting to see the progress made by the students.
“Capacity building for local people is at the heart of Peuna’s business model,” he said.
“Wherever Peuna successfully secures work, we look to partner with local landowner groups”.