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December 2018

e-NEWS and Merry Christmas to all!!

Caring for Kiriwina Village Birth Attendant Training in October 2018: Intrepid CFK midwives; Jacqui Andrews and Shea Caplice in action with Midwife Bokowau translating.

WHAT A WONDERFUL YEAR 2018 HAS BEEN FOR CFK…

It takes a lot of good hearted people to allow Caring for Kiriwina to achieve the great successes it has so far in it’s 6 years of existence. We would like to thank our wonderful CFK Team from Australia, intrepid Midwife Educators Shea Caplice and Jacqui Andrews; intrepid Deputy VBA Programme Head Vanessa Palfreeman; our in-country Head Toks Bwaina; our on-Island Head Lepani Ahab; our in-country training partners Ridley and Meisy Mwaisiga, Bokawau and Leness; our head VBA’s on the Island Ruth Boaz and Dulcie (and husband Nelson) Toposana and our hundreds of CFK members on Island.

With their help and the support of all our of our wonderful sponsors and donors we have managed to:

• complete a successful Village Birth Attendants (VBA’s) training program this year which included 210 participants, all done in partnership with the Losuia Health Centre.
• supply over 3,500 birthing kits Island wide.
• review and adjust the contents of our birthing kits to include muslin wraps and washable menstrual pads.
• supply over 100 torches and lanterns (some currently awaiting clearance in Moresby) to the VBA’s as well as thongs, uniforms and jumpers.
• start to organise our next training trip scheduled for June 2019
• investigate options for additional training of birth attendants as a result of the successful Friendship Grant application.

As a side note, we have been recently informed that there are currently no medicines at the Losuia Health Centre.  As the only medical facility on the Island of 55,000 people, this highlights the lack of basic essential services available to some of our closest neighbours who feel very remote and neglected.  On a brighter note, some power has been reinstated which has resulted in some SMS communication possible between us and the Island.Learn more

At Losuia Health Centre Office in October pictured from left: Health Officer Ridley Mwaisiga, CFK Midwife Jacqui Andrews, Front: Midwife Bokawa, behind Raymond. CFK Midwife Shea Caplice, Losuia Health Centre Nurse Meisy Mwaisiga and Jodi Lawton.

We are so thrilled that Caring for Kiriwina has been successful in our recent application to DFAT for an Australian Aid Friendship Grant! 

The core basis for the awarding of this grant is to train village birth attendants to safely deliver babies in remote areas of Papua New Guinea.  For more information go to this link. https://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2018/mp_mr_181130.aspx

See screen grab below from the DFAT Friendship Grants announcement and CFK is first in line.

Thank you so much to the Australian Government! We will not let you down.

The Village Birth Attendant Training Project is supported by the Australian Government and implemented by Caring for Kiriwina.

Caring For Kiriwina
info@caringforkiriwina.org.au
Please help the women & children of Kiriwina

Thanks again to all our donors for your ongoing support!
CLICK HERE TO DONATE

There have been multiple hurdles delaying the delivery of these headlamps to our wonderful VBA’s on Kiriwina. The headlamps are currently in customs at Port Moresby, and we can’t resolve this until the new year.

Fingers crossed this process will be resolved quickly in early 2019 and these much needed headlights will soon be assisting our Village Birth Attendants.

We were excited to receive both a phone call congratulating Caring for Kiriwina, followed up by this letter of support. We are pleased to receive such high level government endorsement for our activities and thank Tony Abbott for his engagement with Caring for Kiriwina.

Founder of Caring for Kiriwina.