The Lemakot Health Center is located on the east coast of New Ireland. The centre was first established as an aid post in 1912 and has a long history of delivering healthcare to people in the province. By the 1970s, under the stewardship of the Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, it became the Sacred Heart Health Centre.
Beyond a few paint jobs, the last maintenance work done to the facility took place in 1987. According to Father Aminio Justyn of the Kavieng Diocese, they had been writing proposals for renovation and maintenance since 2000, but nothing fruitful had come out of that effort. That is until earlier this year, where thanks to your generosity, our partners Catholic Church Health Services were able to replace the facility’s roof.
In Papua New Guinea, rural health centres face an enormous amount of challenges in addressing work of this magnitude. Over 90 percent of people in the Pacific nation live in rural areas and use local health centres like the one in Lemakot.
The government in Papua New Guinea largely funds health centres in urban and more regional areas. Additionally, the cost of supplies in Papua New Guinea is high, with record inflation reducing purchasing power for everybody, especially for those on low incomes in rural areas.
“Papua New Guinea has a very high mortality rate because of the many challenges that affect the healthcare services in a health centre like Lemakot. We would like to provide quality and very safe delivery or childbirth for our people,“ said Dr Anthanius Kari from Catholic Church Health Services.
“However, circumstances where the resources become a challenge, such as old equipment and lack of running water in the health facility, can all contribute to the ongoing high mortality rate.”
“Women deliver in very challenging circumstances, even though they are in a health centre. Old and malfunctioning equipment can affect the way we deliver our health services. These can improve through the support of donor partners and through the support of the Government and the Church to be able to deliver quality and efficient care to our people,” he added.
The work done to the Lemakot Health Centre was incredibly overdue. The rusty roof was full of holes, creating serious impediments to the delivery of adequate healthcare to patients.
Prior to the instalment of the new roof, rainwater leaking into treatment rooms and equipment storage areas were evidently a hygiene concern. Nurses having to manage buckets of water and fight to keep areas dry for patients was also a clear source of frustration, and a poor use of their skills. However, the condition of that roof held up other fundamental improvements to the health centre. It had no running water because harnessing rainwater from the roof to fill water tanks was not an option. Not only would the water have been rusty, but most of it would never have reached gutters for catchment, as most of it would often end up inside the buildings. To make matters worse, without watertight buildings, a safe electricity supply was not possible.
“We are happy to say that through the work of Caritas Australia and the funding that has come through, and the support of the Catholic Health Services and the Kavieng Diocese, we have been able to fix the roofs of the health centre,” said Dr Kari.
Now, safe drinking water can be collected from the rain into the tank and be used for the health centre staff and patients.
Dr Kari Athanasius
Thanks to your support and the work of our partners, the new roof has been firmly installed, sealing the building – which had also been newly repainted. As a result, several water tanks are now in operation, and there are no electrical hazards.
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