Volunteers help school, aid post

 By EUNAR NOREEN KARATU

THE Voluntary Services Overseas one-hour principle project has helped the community at Ranara in Madang set up school toilets and extend the aid post.

Communications adviser Sarah Wiles said the Ranara community had a tiny aid post, crammed with supplies.

It served Ranara and around 6000 people in the surrounding area who, for some, had to walk up to four hours to reach the clinic.

“The centre is in desperate need of an extension so that it can offer better care, particularly for pregnant women,” she said.

Health care worker Paul Nanai said the health centre needed to be extended to cater for the population.

“There will now be more privacy for screening patients,” he said. 

“It used to be just an open space.” 

Wiles said: “With maternal mortality rates among the highest in the world, having a service that can support women in difficulty is essential to reducing this number.”

Wiles said the team was working in the primary school to build better toilets for the children.

“Currently the school has just two working toilets housed in bush material, perched between previously dug pits making the land very treacherous,” she said. 

“One is for the boys, servicing 325 of the 452 students. The recommendation is that there should be one toilet per 60 male pupils.”

She said the walls were made of leafs and no toilet paper was provided.

Teacher Margaret Bomal said it was important to have proper toilets to stop the spreading of diseases.