Our project, No Roads to Health, and expeditions continue to grow and we were again privileged to have an amazing group of health professionals with different but complementary skills which were truly relevant to the health care needs of the people of PNG.
In Port Moresby, we once again attended the Six Mile Public Clinic and were able to integrate with the local health care workers and deliver a measles vaccination program; vaccinating over 150 children during the current outbreak. This would not have happened had we not been present. Our clinic at the compound was again well attended by the families of our porter group. Afterwards, at Airways, where we were meeting with board members of the Port Moresby General Hospital, the Prime Minister Peter O'Neil walked by, stopped, looked at our shirts and to our surprise and delight, said: "thanks for coming back and helping our people"!!!
In Port Moresby, we once again attended the Six Mile Public Clinic and were able to integrate with the local health care workers and deliver a measles vaccination program; vaccinating over 150 children during the current outbreak. This would not have happened had we not been present. Our clinic at the compound was again well attended by the families of our porter group. Afterwards, at Airways, where we were meeting with board members of the Port Moresby General Hospital, the Prime Minister Peter O'Neil walked by, stopped, looked at our shirts and to our surprise and delight, said: "thanks for coming back and helping our people"!!!
After a 24 hour delay (which gave us the opportunity to visit Bormana War Cemetery and tour the city), we finally hit the track to trek hard, work hard and make up for lost time. Conducting health clinics at Kagi and Naduri on the same day was a bit to ask but no one complained and the team quickly developed a system to best utilise the skills we jointly possessed.
Our osteopath Meg, quickly found her feet and ran a number of group sessions with the locals, explaining the value of and demonstrating stretches to try and minimise the prevalent osteoarthritis problems without continually resorting to drugs. Meg also developed a stretching warm up / warm down regime for the porter group which will become standard practice for all NR2H treks. We also hope that this will become normal business for all expeditions across the track.
A highlight of the expedition was the full re-organisation and clean-up of the Efogi Health Centre to enable it to run as a more organised and efficient service. The Community Health Care Workers at Efogi were astounded by what the team were able to achieve in a relatively short time and they could not thank the team enough for tackling what they saw as a "too big a task". They made a verbal commitment to maintain the facility in its current state.
Our osteopath Meg, quickly found her feet and ran a number of group sessions with the locals, explaining the value of and demonstrating stretches to try and minimise the prevalent osteoarthritis problems without continually resorting to drugs. Meg also developed a stretching warm up / warm down regime for the porter group which will become standard practice for all NR2H treks. We also hope that this will become normal business for all expeditions across the track.
A highlight of the expedition was the full re-organisation and clean-up of the Efogi Health Centre to enable it to run as a more organised and efficient service. The Community Health Care Workers at Efogi were astounded by what the team were able to achieve in a relatively short time and they could not thank the team enough for tackling what they saw as a "too big a task". They made a verbal commitment to maintain the facility in its current state.
Another big plus on this expedition was the relationship we were able to build with the schools at Efogi and Menari and we ran several health education sessions for more than 100 students, concentrating on preventive musculo-skeletal exercises, oral health and hand hygiene. If we are to make sustainable health improvements in these villages, we must start with the children and change future behaviours.
We continue to use our network and the No Roads Expeditions name to bring people together in PNG and the relationship we now have with senior health officials in the country continues to grow - especially the work we are doing with Port Moresby General Hospital and the Provincial Health Authorities.
We trekked away from our March expedition better connected, highly motivated, very satisfied and thankful that we had the opportunity to make a small difference to the health outcomes of the people of PNG. The friendships and the memories of this expedition will remain with all of us forever and each team member is talking about returning to PNG in the next few years.
Stewart "Sooty" Kreltszheim & Jo Bergman
Expedition Guides
No Roads Expeditions
[email protected]
We continue to use our network and the No Roads Expeditions name to bring people together in PNG and the relationship we now have with senior health officials in the country continues to grow - especially the work we are doing with Port Moresby General Hospital and the Provincial Health Authorities.
We trekked away from our March expedition better connected, highly motivated, very satisfied and thankful that we had the opportunity to make a small difference to the health outcomes of the people of PNG. The friendships and the memories of this expedition will remain with all of us forever and each team member is talking about returning to PNG in the next few years.
Stewart "Sooty" Kreltszheim & Jo Bergman
Expedition Guides
No Roads Expeditions
[email protected]