Tourists give to Gaubin hospital

In the spirit of giving

By Patrick Matbob

 Many tourists coming to PNG have had the opportunity to visit the remote rural areas of the country on the Kalibobo Spirit, the Melanesian Tourists Services luxurious vessel. The visits to the relatively untouched corners of the country have revealed a lot to the visitors. They have seen how the people live by gardening, hunting and fishing, and experienced some of the cultural activities that were staged to entertain them.

Traditional welcome

The tourists also see other things. They note the kinds of poverty and lack of access to basic services that affect the people in remote rural areas of the country. Many visitors are genuinely touched by the plight of their hosts and have assisted in a small ways by donating funds or items that the people need. The role of facilitating the donations for the people has also been a responsibility of the Melanesian Tourists Services sister organization – the Melanesian Foundation. The work of the foundation had been going on for 40 years although the organization was only formalized in 1999.

“Initially it was established to assist people living in remote  rural areas which were frequently visited by the Sepik Explorer, Melanesian Explorer and later the Melanesian Discoverer,” says Sir Peter Barter, the owner of Melanesian Tourist Services. 

 

“The contributors were mainly from passengers who wanted to show their appreciation to the people as well as grants from MTS”. 

However, with the reduction of tourists’ numbers recently, the foundation has relied on generous people who made significant grants. The main work of the Foundation has been in the manufacture and distribution of school desks and to date more than 28,000 desks have been delivered to community schools in the East Sepik, Madang and Milne Bay Provinces.

On December 19, 2011 the Kalibobo Spirit was again on one of its generous trips to donate essential medical equipment and drugs to Lutheran Gaubin hospital on Karkar Island. The equipment included an x-ray and a colorimeter and supplies of drugs for the hospital that serves the 60,000 plus population of the island. The equipment and the drugs were valued at K375, 000.

On board the Spirit were some of the donors. They included Sir Peter Barter who also captained the vessel, members of the Diver family, representatives of PNG Sustainable Development, Lutheran Church, Ramu Nickel Mine and invited guests from Madang General hospital, Madang health office and Divine Word University. They were to join the other donors who were the Middleton family on Karkar and the health workers at Gaubin hospital.

Departing at 8am, the Kalibobo Spirit steamed effortlessly through the relatively calm sea heading north out of Madang harbor. There was some traffic, mainly banana boats loaded with workers and shoppers, coming into town from the islands in the harbor. Once out of the passage, the vessel set course for Karkar for the three hour trip while passengers gathered at the top deck for breakfast of tea, coffee, toasts and muffins.

About 20 kilometres out of the harbor, a large school of dolphins joined the vessel splashing about the bow and entertaining the passengers. As the morning heated up, some of the tourists escaping the European winder took the opportunity to sun bathe at the bow of the vessel and were soon lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the vessel. The Papua New Guinean passengers however, retreated into the shady deck areas enjoying the breeze and light refreshments that were on offer.

At about 11:30am, the Kalibobo Spirit nosed its way into a passage in the reef to Kurum village where it anchored in the lagoon. The crew released a boat to ferry the passengers ashore at Gaubin where the reception party was waiting. It took three trips while Sir Peter flew in on his helicopter that was parked on the vessel. Visitors were welcomed by groups of dancers on the sandy shores and were led to the hospital.

Gaubin was built 64 years ago by Australian Lutheran missionary the late Dr Edwin Tscharke and his wife Tabitha and today serves people of Karkar and Bagbag islands. Dr Tscharke, affectionately known and remembered by the islanders as Papa Tscharke, arrived in PNG as a missionary in 1941 just as the war began and worked with the Australia New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) health services. After the war the Lutherans wanted to build a hospital on Karkar and Tscharke was selected for the task. He was given several weeks of intensive medical instructions and sent to the island with all the building materials on an ex-Army 300 tonner MV Kelanoa. Tscharke, designed and built the hospital in the shape of a cross with a central nursing station. An outpatients block, operating theatre, dispensary and labor ward were situated between two ends of the arms of the cross. Though unusual, the design was extremely practical and allowed for the maximum supervision of nursing staff with the minimum of walking.

The impact of the contribution made by Dr Tscharke and the Lutheran missionaries in health services is enormous. When he arrived in 1947 the island population of 9,000 was being ravaged and decimated by diseases. Today the population has exploded to well over 60,000.

 After the welcome and introductory speeches, the new X-ray machine and drug supplies were dedicated by the local pastor Tibut Yadi. The X-ray machine was dedicated in the memory of late Don Kudan, former Secretary of the Lutheran Health Services and Chairman of Church Medical Council of PNG. Kudan was heavily involved in getting the medical equipment and drugs for the hospital when he passed away early this year.

Gaubin hospital board chairman Bakan Kapei thanked the donors on behalf of the hospital and the islanders saying they would always be grateful for the donation.

“We had a problem when our old x-ray machine broke down, but you made it possible for us to get a new one”.

One of the donors, Sir John Middleton of Karkar Island shared his personal experience of fracturing his spine and not being able to get help from the hospital because the old x-ray machine was not working well. Eventually he had to travel to Australia for treatment.

The CEO of the hospital Dr Christof Ihle said the health conditions on the island has improved a lot despite poor government funding and services. He said most of the equipment at the hospital have been provided by private donors. He was proud to report that in 2009 and 2010, no mothers giving birth at the hospital died. He said this was a major achievement considering that PNG is ranked second highest in the world in terms of maternal mortality. He said the hospital has achieved this despite its health workers being paid low wages compared to their counterparts in public hospitals.

Chief Executive Officer of the PNG Sustainable Development David Sode while thanking donors for their support pointed out that PNG has enough money to meet the basic needs of its people however, funds were often wasted. He said the country has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, yet the people continue to remain poor. PNGSDP also signed an agreement with the hospital to partly fund a water supply project. It also gave K5000 for drugs and medication to the hospital.

After the dedication, the visitors were showered with gifts of bilums (string bags) which the islanders are famous for weaving.  

By 2pm, the visitors were ferried back to the boat for a delicious lunch of tuna fillets, French fries and salad and a leisure trip back to the town this time navigating through the Iduan and Godowan lagoons allowing the passengers a glimpse of the many scenic islands that lie scattered around the lagoons. At 6pm, the Kalibobo Spirit berthed at the Madang Resort jetty.

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