Students supply hospital with food

 By YVONNE HAIP

STUDENTS from St Mary’s Ulga Primary School in Western Highlands contributed a truckload of food to the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital yesterday.

This is the first time a school has come to the aid of the hospital and wants to establish a long- term relationship.

The students, who come from the lower Nebilyer area, gave kaukau (sweet potato), greens and pineapples for the hospital to serve to its in-patients, and in turn, want the hospital to assist them with health services.

Curative health services director Dr Guapo Kiagi, who was on hand to receive the gifts, thanked the students for their initiative.

He said the hospital would set up an aid post for the school so that students could have access to basic health care.

Kiagi said a teacher would undergo basic health care training in order to identify and treat students’ illnesses and refer them to the hospital if they were serious.

The students and staff were pleased with this and pledged to supply food rations each school term.

Hospital staff will also conduct a school health programme there, which will include a health visit soon.