None of Caring for Kiriwina’s success would have been possible in the past 10 years without the incredible organisational and managerial skills of our CFK in-country manager Toks Bwaina. Without his skillful management of the extremely difficult logistical tasks undertaken by CFK none of our wonderful results would have been possible. Toks Bwaina is a wonderful soul who has volunteered hours of his time for the benefit of his people. Caring for Kiriwina would like to take this opportunity to thank you Toks from the bottom of our hearts!!!
Toks and Vanessa on KiriwinaToks running VBA meeting on Kiriwina
One of our beautiful VBA attendees Edie Moses from Gumilababa at the CFK Birth Attendant Training in September 2019.
After the Kiriwina High School had to be closed for several weeks due to water shortages, CFK AusAid came to the rescue and installed water pumps to the High School to ensure a more reliable source of potable water for students and teachers alike. We also installed three other water pumps across the Island and repaired three others.
CFK completed our third successful Village Birth Attendant Training in September, which included a small group intensive training program, followed by two days where 210 participants attended. PNG women are 33 more times likely to die in childbirth than those in developed countries, and our aim is to improve this terrible statistic.
We have managed to extend our help and provide much needed school equipment to several schools on the Island. The final year exams could not have been completed without CFK providing hundreds of pens and other essential school equipment.
We help save the lives of the women and children on Kiriwina
Caring for Kiriwina/ PNG AusAid VBA Training group, Oyabia Station, Kiriwina, September 2019.
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the passing of the beloved founder of Caring for Kiriwina, Margaret Lawton. She is forever in our hearts and minds. We are sure that she would be thrilled with the progress her charity has made. She and her husband Ralph dedicated their lives to helping the people of Kiriwina and we have pledged to follow on with this good work in their footsteps.
Purchase this gorgeous photographic recycled plastic zip storage case calendar and you will be receiving, and potentially giving, a wonderful gift that lasts all year and the Kiriwinan people will receive the help they need. Win, win for everyone :).
Purchase one, or many of our wonderful CFK photo reflection 2020 Desktop Calendars. Only $50.00 including desktop recycled zip case stand and free postage within Australia, with all funds going to our ongoing CFK work that is helping to save lives. Did we mention all donations are tax deductible. Plastic covers created from upcycling CD/storage disk cases. Very ethical.
We are so grateful to mid wife extraordinaire Shea Caplice for hosting this wonderful fundraiser and the bands that volunteered and preformed to raise funds for Caring for Kiriwina: The last born: Midwife Sheryl, Sally and Jason – kicked us off and Lionel Robinson and the in crowd took us out. Just brilliant!
The last born: Midwife Sheryl, Sally and JasonLionel Robinson and the in crowd
Another 400 birthing kits and 100 Dignity Kits heading to the Losuia Heath Centre, our VBA’s and the Kiriwina High School. Hopefully they will arrive with the other three boxes that we sent last week as an early Christmas present. Thank you to all our sponsors and donors and volunteers and Australia Aid for making all this lifesaving work possible. @DFAT, @AustraliaAid, @FriendshipGrants, #DFAT, #AustraliaAid, #FriendshipGrants.
More of these invaluable resources are winging their way to the Losuia Health Clinic volunteer Jansen and more VBA’s. Thanks to our donors and sponsors and Australia Aid @DFAT, #DFAT, @FriendshipGrants, #FriendshipGrants.
Thank you Jansen for your ongoing support of your people and the Caring for Kiriwina Program. Your work in the villages and your advocacy for the VBA program is extremely appreciated. Kagutoki!
Jansen Toposona speech of appreciation for the CFK program. (Sorry about the poor quality).
Our
team of four CFK dimdims (white persons!) have safely returned from
another challenging but successful trip to Kiriwina. While the main
focus of the visit was to provide training support for the Village Birth
Attendants (VBAs), we also gained first hand feedback on the results of
some of our other aid programs. Such feedback is vital for CFK to
ensure outcomes are being achieved, and learn how these programs can be
improved to ensure ongoing CFK work continues to be as effective as
possible.
We
visited communities which are now benefiting from recently constructed
water wells, and were shown some caves to better understand the risks
and dangers that some villagers face just to access
clean water – our on-going well program will make accessing water safer
and more reliable, not to mention easier. We talked to groups who have
benefitted from the Dignity Kits, and had constructive discussions with
our on-island partners including the Losuia Health Clinic, to ensure our
VBA support coordinates with the objectives of the local Health Clinic
and PNG Health objectives generally.
Our
CFK programs have been expanded this year as a direct consequence of
funding provided through the Australian DFAT Friendship Grant, for which
the Kiriwinan people acknowledge and say thank you Australia! CFK also
acknowledges our on-going support base of volunteers including the
students at St Vincent’s College, Sydney, UNSW Faculty of Health and
Yarralumla Uniting Church. We are grateful also to our on-island
supporters for the success of this recent trip, in particular the Oyabia
United Church for providing logistical support and the use of the
church hall to conduct our training support for the 200+ attendees.
Kamatokisi kwaiveka, as they say.
During
our recent VBA support training – CFK Midwife trainers Shea Caplice and
Jacqui Andrews taking two VBA’s through a complicated birth exercise
demonstrating what to do when a women bleeds excessively and the baby
comes out not breathing.
This
cross cultural saying was expressed to us wherever we went on Kiriwina
to express appreciation of the effectiveness of our team, clearly CFK is
lucky to have the right people in the right positions with the right
support.
All
of our current programs on Kiriwina are benefitting from the efforts of
our wonderful teams in Australia and our partners on the ground on
Kiriwina. Our initiatives are being enthusiastically embraced and
actioned, and with the additional support provided by the Friendship
Grant we have managed to further expand on our achievements.
Our partners on Kiriwina include the Losuia Health Clinic, Kiriwina High School and Elementary School, the Uniting Church and our enthusiastic Kiriwinan plumber, Mr Koega, whose intricate knowledge of water pumps is truly inspiring.
Help save the lives of the women and children on Kiriwina
Following
on from our theme for this newsletter, the right people in the right
roles, we are extremely grateful to our two exceptional midwife
educators Shea Caplice and Jacqui Andrews for volunteering their
services yet again for their third trip to Kiriwina in three years.
This
recent visit in September 2019 to provide educational support for the
VBAs on Kiriwina provided an initial session over several days of more
intense and focussed teaching with a small group of 24 VBAs on primary
health care. This was followed by a larger group of around 200 VBA
participants in the second half of the week. Issues covered included
family planning and assisting with normal births, what to do when a baby
is not breathing or when the
mother bleeds excessively after birth. The support sessions also
provided an opportunity for the VBAs to practice skills that they
learned and be assessed on those skills in a supportive environment.
Specific objectives included:
VBAs will be able to demonstrate the correct clean and safe way to assist at the birth of a baby using the birth kit.
VBA will demonstrate the correct way to rub the fundus and apply external bimanual compression to stop bleeding after delivery.
VBA will demonstrate essential newborn care and simple
resuscitation puffing air into the lungs via the nose/mouth.
VBAs
will show how they will provide some education younger VBAs including
why family planning is important, healthy eating during pregnancy,
danger signs, visiting the Health Centre for check-ups and planning for
birth.
We
also discussed hygiene of self, home, family and village, showed videos
on the spread of disease, and outlined the seven cleans needed for
assisting at birth. Our educational support sessions get better each
time and the most positive thing is the VBAs coming together and wanting
to learn.
Thanks to Midwife educator extrodinaire Shea Caplice.
While on Kiriwina we inspected the recently installed water pumps in the Kiriwina High School grounds and the village of Kuluwa, which were ceremoniously opened with much fanfare. Sadly, due to poor weather and logistics we were unable to visit our two other recent water pump installations in the more remote villages of Kenobasi and Wakesa.
Our
wonderful plumber Mr Koega accompanied us on our inspections and
explained how many unfinished NGO pump sites there are around the Island
which are in need of completion, maintenance or parts.
As we identify the villages in the most need of potable water, it is evident there are still more pumps to be
installed and more pumps to be completed or repaired.
Mr Koega, our water pump man!
Our newly installed and decorated water pump.
As soon as we landed on Kiriwina, we were driven to the Kiriwina High School assembly which was called in honour of Caring for Kiriwina, where the students and teachers expressed their appreciation of the water pumps and the Dignity Kits. The students claim that the Dignity Kits are truly liberating their lives. We also heard first hand that the reusable menstrual pads and underpants which we now include in the Birthing Kits were also having an extremely positive impact on the lives of these women and girls.
Kiriwina High School student assembly to thank CFK for the water pumps and Dignity Kits.
All
this life saving work could not have been achieved without the help of
the DFAT Friendship Grant and our Volunteers, Sponsors and Donors.
Caring for Kiriwina is supported by the Australian Government.
