Middle Fly District

The rice project is worth PGK3.8million and is funded through a Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership Incentive Fund grant which supports women groups and families to trial rice production for consumption and commercial purposes.

The aim of the project is to scale up production and venture into processing and marketing at a larger scale. Communities who participated had the training in improved food production techniques and family business management and received support for building sustainable agribusinesses.

The facility serves over 10 villages including Aiambak, Boboa station and Lake-Murray. It needs simple medical supplies including dressing, IV fluids, Anti-biotic drugs, Mala-wan and pain relief medication.

These figures indicate that the highly contagious and infectious skin disease is present in other villages in the area, therefore requiring urgent attention before it spreads.

The remote Upati Village hardly ever has medical teams visit them let alone a trained doctor and laboratory scientist.

Villagers turned up in numbers as word spread quickly.

Mothers and their children, men and even the elderly braved the wet weather to get tested for yaws.

From the 117 blood tests conducted, 35 were found positive.