Cabrini Outreach Annual Report 2020-21 International development
Papua New Guinea
Despite its proximity to Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) faces significant global development challenges. The health system is under-resourced and deteriorating and maternal and child health outcomes are the worst in the Pacific region. Given Papua New Guinea’s close historical connection to Australia, we feel particularly called to reach out to our nearest neighbour. We have supported health-related programs in PNG for nearly two decades, with our strongest relationships in Madang Province. During the past year we continued our partnership with the government-owned Madang Provincial Hospital, as well as Catholic Church Health Services (CCHS) in the Archdiocese of Madang to support primary health. Unfortunately, with the travel restrictions in place during the last financial year, on-ground support and contribution proved more difficult than usual. It became physically impossible to get our surgeons, nurses and biomedical experts to PNG for the service and education program and biomedical visit. As a result, these services could not take place, and our work in PNG moved away from on-ground support and towards capacity strengthening. From afar, we maintained communication with our partners and were able to contribute in other ways. This included the establishment and funding of a cervical cancer screening program at Madang Provincial Hospital, 32
tabled and accepted in conjunction with funding from the Kirby Institute. Funding for a registered nurse for this program was proposed and accepted, and a total contribution of $80,000 was provided to them in March 2021. In May 2021, thanks to the generosity of the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, we were able to secure funds to source and purchase a much-needed autoclave machine and a vaccination fridge, and ship them to our partners at Malala Health Clinic for their internal and outreach health services. This donation will allow for better management, implementation and provision of vaccinations — including for COVID-19. As the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to affect the people of Papua New Guinea more severely, we hope with this equipment they will be able to strengthen their maternal and child health programs in the Malala region. Finally, our Histopathology Service with Modilon Provincial Hospital continued over the year — a pro-bono service which we have been engaged with since 2014. Pathology specimens from the hospital were couriered to Melbourne for testing, with results able to be reported and sent back within 13 days. This continues to be a vast improvement on the turnaround previously experience through their in-country service, which was approximately six months to two years.
