A rural medical officer with many namesakes

A rural nursing officer, Paul Konare who has served in many rural health establishments in Madang Province has a lot of interesting adventures and many wonderful tales to tell。

One of those stories about this very committed and dedicated medical officer is that he has many namesakes in all the rural places where he had served to provide health services to the people。

A namesake is a person named after another.  In general, the second recipient of a name, named for the first, is said to be the namesake of the first. The attribution can, however, go in the opposite direction, with namesake referring to the original holder of the name.

Paul Konare has many namesakes simply because of his duty to serve in some of the furthest and disadvantaged areas as a rural nursing officer。 Moreover he usually helped mothers during labour deliver their babies, and sometimes assisted buy nappies or diapers for the babies because those mothers could not afford it.

“Some of these mothers found it hard to thank me so in return they decided to name their sons after me,” Paul Konare said.

In one case Paul had to help a mother deliver an infant whose legs had come out first, which is not right, so he had to do his utmost best to turn the baby around while it was still in his mother‘s womb。 That baby was also named Paul Konare。

Konare has namesakes in nearly all these remote locations  in Madang he was stationed。

One of his namesakes, now in his  late 20s has two children comes from Daigul in Bogia, who pays him a visit with food stuff when he goes to town。

Konare,who hails from Guiebi village in Usino-Bundi district of Madang started off his career in the 1980s after completing his studies at a nursing school in Madang where he served in Bundi, then to Aiome in Middle-Ramu then to Daigul health centre in Bogia, Josephstaal, Igos, Malala high school, Ileg in Rai Coast, Walium in Usino-Bundi district and Bogia health centre.

In all these health centres Paul has one or two namesakes after him, except in Daigul he has three namesakes.

Konare served the government health services spanning over 20  years in rural health establishments before joining Highlands Pacific Limited  in 2005 before transferring to Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Ltd。

Since he usually served in most of the rural aid posts giving most medical attention and treatment he was usually addressed affectionately as ‘doctor’                                                                                        

His commitment to serving the rural population is always done without any complaints or fuss.

He sacrifices his time during normal working hours, however, often when patients come very late at night or at wee hours of the morning Paul Konare doesn‘t  refuse them and goes out to serve them。

Picture: Paul Konare comforting a child near Jangag village in Rai Coast. 

Author: 
James Geno Kila