A visit to Madang by Australian High Commissioner, Bruce Davis, has reaffirmed Australia’s commitment to supporting Papua New Guinea to achieve high quality post-secondary education nationwide.
During the trip, the High Commissioner handed over new teaching mannequins to the Divine Word University (DWU) campus in Madang, funded under the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership’s Kina for Kina project in collaboration with the Divine Word University.
The new mannequins include adult, children and infant mannequins and will help students to learn Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), expanding their basic first aid training that is important in ensuring survival of patients in emergencies.
Speaking at the hand-over ceremony at DWU’s medical faculty on Thursday 28 November, Davis highlighted the importance of having such teaching aids to improve medical learning in PNG.
“These medical mannequins will help enhance the University’s teaching and learning capabilities, leading to more skilled medical practitioners throughout the country.
“More skilled medical practitioners means better access to medical services and more lives saved; these medical mannequins are teaching aids that will support the improvement of the health and wellbeing of all Papua New Guineans,” he stressed.
“As one of Papua New Guinea’s leading schools of medicine, you have the potential to greatly improve the quality of health care throughout the country with the effective use of this equipment.”
DWU Medical and Health Faculty staff also underwent training as part of the Kina for Kina project.
DWU is also the current recipient of a PNG-Australia Partnership Incentive Fund grant to construct new staff housing and student dormitories. Since 2002, the Madang campus has received more than PGK27 million in new infrastructure under the Incentive Fund, including a new library, lecture theatre and IT systems.
While in Madang, the High Commissioner also met with the PNG Australia Awards Alumni Madang Chapter and visited students under Australia Awards-in-PNG Scholarships studying at the Lutheran School of Nursing (LSON) and Maritime College.
More than 197 scholarships have been provided to students to help address human capacity gaps in the health sector.
During the visit, Davis stated that the PNG-Australia Partnership is committed to supporting initiatives like this that drive quality education and health services.
(Fourth year MBBS student, Consilliah Menda, explaining to Australian High Commissioner, Bruce Davis, the simulation situation of the medical mannequin patient. This particular scenario depicts how students can check for the blood pressure and the pulse rate. The medical mannequins were provided for by the Australia-Papua New Guinea Partnership’s Kina4Kina program. Standing next to him is the Madang Acting Provincial Administrator, Joseph Kunda Bonomane)