Papua New Guinea Update
Earlier this year I wrote a grant application for Hear the World, a corporate nonprofit foundation founded by Sonova working towards equal opportunities and better quality of life for people with hearing loss. We have now been told we received this grant. This grant will help to cover costs for me and other volunteers to visit Papua New Guinea (PNG) for supervision of the students over the next 2 years.
It will also allow us to purchase equipment for the 5 hearing centres we are planning to establish in the regional hubs of Wewak, Goroka, Lae, Port Moresby and Rabaul.
While the PNG project is in it’s infancy the resource centre staff in the country are very experienced at patient education and medical treatment for ear wax and infection. However they do not have equipment or training for full diagnostic testing and hearing aid fitting.
A lot more staff training is needed, but they are passionate about helping their communities and do have excellent skills at communicating and educating their patients.
The World Health organization says that in low income countries such as PNG 75% of childhood hearing loss is preventable. So having good patient education is key. We spend a great deal of our time teaching children to blow their noses to clear the mucous out their nose rather than sniffing it back into their heads, where it can clog up their sinuses.
As community health workers and trainers the two local workers who will become the trainers are Jane and Desmond. They are already very experienced at training as they both assist in training of community rehabilitation workers. We are really hoping that their existing skills in ear and hearing screening will be able to assist in their course work as they begin their Diploma in Audiometry at TAFE, as well as in the future allowing them to assist in the development of staff training and establishing these regional hubs. EARS Inc volunteers will be assisting in their practical training and in the development of these 5 clinics.
I will be overseeing the project and coordinating the PNG project, right now that feels quite overwhelming and I am praying through what God wants for this project. I am also still writing our 3 year project plan for World Relief Australia, to allow the project to have tax deductibility.
It is an incredible big vision and I am praying that the volunteers who have expressed interest take on some of the work of this project over time. May God raise up the help we need over the next few years.
