“If they are unable to come to us, then we must reach them,” says a passionate clinician.
“We walk for days, sleep in the bushes, cross rivers, climb mountains and fight mosquitoes and leeches, so our people in the remote areas of Papua New Guinea can access health services.”
This is the passion of Joseph Mondo who travels across Western Highlands Province to raise awareness about family planning options and methods. A clinician with Marie Stopes PNG, Mondo is proud to be one of few men in this role and says it is rewarding to help save lives.
As the world observed World Population Day on July 11, Joseph reflected on the success of his work to increase coverage and use of sustainable high quality, inclusive, integrated sexual reproductive health and family planning services in PNG.
“Family planning is a choice that a family makes to build a strong and healthy family. When you plan your family, you can help to build a strong and healthy Papua New Guinea,” said Mondo.
Mondo and his colleague Georgina Tore recently returned from a week-long trip to Koinambe in the mountainous and isolated part of Jimi District in Jiwaka Province, where they conducted clinics with over 400 people.
During the visit, Mondo and Tore provided counselling services for married couples and single men and women on long term and short-term contraceptive methods, including devices inside the uterus, implants and short-term methods, such as the contraceptive pill. Other services provided include vasectomy for men, tubal ligation for women, implant removal and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
“Family planning is everyone’s business. It is not only for women and girls, it involves men and boys as well. It recognises the right of a woman to choose when she wants to have a baby or not, and also deals with her health,” said Tore.
Marie Stopes has been working in PNG since 2016 and is now the largest provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare in the country. The non-government organisation works closely with the Government of Papua New Guinea on their National Health Plan 2011 - 2020 to increase the uptake of modern contraception and to train public and private health workers in better meeting demand for family planning services.
Through the ‘Wok Bung Waintaim na Strongim Famili’ initiative supported by the Australian government, Marie Stopes and Susu Mamas work in partnership with provincial health authorities in NCD, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, Jiwaka, Morobe, Enga, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Simbu, Madang, East New Britain, Milne Bay and East Sepik to increase awareness and access to integrated sexual reproductive health and family planning services, and maternal and child health services.
Through outreach clinics in 2018, around 213,000 men and women received sexual reproductive health and family planning services. Susu Mamas and Marie Stopes also provided maternal child health care services to over 113,000 in the same year.
“Our successes are possible through the PNG-Australia Partnership and we are proud to be making rights a reality by educating adolescents, men and women and persons with disabilities by bringing services to their doorsteps,” said Tore.
This year's World Population Day calls for global attention to the unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Twenty-five years have passed since that landmark conference, where 179 governments recognised that reproductive health and gender equality are essential for achieving sustainable development. The aim is to make reproductive health and rights a reality for all.
(Georgina Tore and a community helper carry family planning kits to Konambe Health Centre in Jiwaka Province)