New health post a safe birthing place

THIRTY-one-year-old Bettina Wanzin is the mother of three children but only two are still living.
She, along with other mothers in her community say they are so happy to have a safe place to give birth at the new Jaffa Community Health Post in Kainantu, Eastern Highlands which opened on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14.
There’s a lot of love in Jaffa, demonstrated through street theatre at the health post opening by a group of mothers from the community. They showed the hardships of giving birth in a community that is far from any medical facility-which had been their experience until now.
“We all have known too many mothers who have died during childbirth, and we are grateful for this new health center,” said Wanzin.
Before the health post was established, women in labour were carried in a sheet by family or friends on foot to the main road-nearly 10 kilometers away. From the main road it is possible to get road transport to Kainantu Hospital-a further 30-minute drive away. Sometimes women died giving birth during the more than two-hour trek to hospital.
The Jaffa Community Health Post, was built under the Rural Primary Health Services Delivery Project, supported by Asian Development Bank (ADB), the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the OPEC Fund for International Development. The project is delivering high quality health services to PNG’s rural population across eight provinces. The main beneficiaries of improved rural health services will be women and children.
Provincial government officials led the ribbon cutting at the event, along with Country Director of ADB’s Papua New Guinea Resident Mission, David Hill and Chris Graham from the Government of Australia. The event was witnessed by members of ADB’s board of directors during their visit to the country, which included executive directors Kshatrapati Shivaji, In-chang Song, Kris Panday, and alternate executive directors Scott Dawson, Mario Di Maio and Jin Lu.
Representing the Health Minister at the event, Elva Lionel, Deputy Secretary, National Health Plan and Corporate Services, urged Jaffa community members to use the new facility.
“This new health post has three functions: To provide a safe place for mothers to give birth, promote good health, and to provide normal outpatient services,” said Lionel.
“The government has declared 2019 as the year of immunization so please bring your children here for that purpose. The Jaffa Community Health Post is the 22nd health post to be built by the project. We are delighted to partner with the Government of PNG to support the improved delivery of essential health services to the Kainantu community,” said Hill. The project is helping PNG’s Department of Health strengthen the health system and address inequities in health service access.”
About 10,000 people in Jaffa will benefit from the new health post in the Eastern Highlands.
The Rural Primary Health Services Delivery Project has also supported the training of more than 300 health workers, supported the development of national standards on rural health services and maternal and reproductive health, and developed a digital health information system, which collects real-time health service data for disease surveillance.
In addition to the Eastern Highlands, the project is also supporting rural health services in Milne Bay, East Sepik, Enga, Western Highlands, West New Britain, Morobe and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.