Our Stories
Life Saving Solar Power (Part II)
Though the ECPNG Health Center is located in the remote and isolated community of Mougulu, Western Province, it still draws in thousands of people seeking medical treatment and assistance even from remote aid post in nearby and distant communities.
The Health Centre operates 24 hours a week, from day to night. The most frequent patients that seek treatment from a weekly to daily basis at the Heath Center are usually mothers who are in labour, snake bite victims and asthmatic patients who depend on the oxygen concentrator.
ECPNG Health Worker, Mary Nema said, for a Remote Health Center, they are very fortunate to have in place excellent equipment to facilitate the needs of their patients, but due to the limited power supply that they had, they were not able to provide their patients with the necessary assistance that they would have liked to.
Thomas Hoey with his aunty Sally Lloyd Hoey assisting the mother and her son out of the plane.
During the service of installing the Solar System at the ECPNG Health facility, the CRMF team witnessed a medical emergency medevac on the 17th of March 2020 at 5:45pm.
Rob Hoey and nephew, Thomas Hoey were flying on their way back to Mougulu when they stopped by a nearby village at Fuma to picked up a mother and her 6-year-old boy who was critically injured. The boy was said to be standing on a mound of large rocks when he slipped and fell hitting his head on a sharp pointy rock.
The boys’ mother had to make a quick decision that could potentially save her son’s life. She had three options. The first option was to walk to Kiunga Hospital which would take a week and several days of walking through bush tracks from where they were. The second option was to walk a few hours to ECPNG Health Centre since it’s central. And the third option was to call Fuma radio station to organize an emergency medevac via plane for the following day.
But the Lord provided another option for both the mother and her injured child by sending Rob and Thomas who picked them up and flew together to Mougulu. On their arrival both the boy and his mother where escorted to the ECPNG Health Centre.
The Community Health Workers Paul Isilawa and Mary Nema attended to the boy who was in shock and had lost a fair amount blood from the open wound on his forehead.
Marry Nema in the process of stitching the young boy’s wound while other health worker assisting on the side by holding a mobile phone torchlight.
After cleaning and shaving the boys head and applying anastatic, Mary Nema begin to stitch the open wound on the boy’s forehead. But because of the limited power and light, it became difficult to stich so a phone was landed to them to use its torchlight. It was an intense process witnessing the operation, but it also showed the importance of having a reliable power source for any Health Centre’s within a remote community.
In conclusion, Mary Nema said that both her and her fellow Community Health Workers greatest happiness and relief is to help their patients and at the end of the day to see their patients fully healthy and happy, but with an unreliable power source it can be an intense and longer process for both themselves and their patients.
We applaud Mary and Paul plus other remote community health works who have to work under such pressure and under similar circumstances to still ensure the health and welfare of their patients are being met despite the many challenges.
This solar install for a solar system was made possible through the help and support from the Hoey family, supporting Churches and generous individuals who funded this project.
We are so blessed that CRMF was able to help meet their need by providing a consistent, quality and dependable power source through the solar installation that will provide a 24/7 power source.
