VANUATU PENTECOST
MAUNA HEALTH CENTRE PROJECT
Pentecost - Vanuatu
Mauna Health Centre Project
The Rotary Clubs of Broadbeach, Gold Coast and Surfers Sunrise, together with three local Rotaract clubs, are jointly implementing this two-stage project. It will substantially improve the facilities at the Mauna Hospital, Pentecost Island, Vanuatu.
Please click here to donate to the project via RAWCS.
**RAWCS = Rotary Australia World Community Service. Donations are tax deductible.
Some background on this project:
The project was initiated by a Doctor from Pentecost Island Dr Richard Leona who in early 2019 attended a Gold Coast Medical Association meeting requesting assistance to provide a building to house a portable XR and blood auto-analysers placed next to a surgical theatre in Mauna Health Centre, Abwatuntora, Pentecost Island, Vanuatu.
The building itself is being built and put together at the Surfers Sunrise Rotary Shed in Arundel, Gold Coast Australia, will then be taken apart and shipped over to Vanuatu, where a team of Rotarians and Rotaractors will be travelling over to assist in the building of the new health centre.
Along with the build, Rotary and the involved clubs aim to assist in the continued training of the medical staff on the island, to help them get the best out of the equipment they will be receiving.
Pentecost Island
Mauna Hospital was built in 1952 and is currently the only hospital on Pentecost Island serving a population of approximately 18,000 residents. Currently no pathology or X-ray facilities are available at Mauna Hospital despite a high level of admissions in relation to fractures (due to activities such as land diving) and chest infections such as Tuberculosis.
The lack of these facilities results in unnecessary deaths (including a high number of maternal and perinatal deaths).
The lack of these critical facilities at the hospital also necessitates travel to Port Villa (190km due south of Pentecost Island) for most medical screening and treatment, a financial impost many in the community cannot afford.
With this project, the building and equipment, we aim to help those in the surrounding villages and on Pentecost island to receive the medical assistance they require, without the need to travel to such great lengths.
DONATED MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
Donations that have been sent over to Vanuatu
Packing a Shipping Container
By Kristen Jewson |
Last September, the Surfers Sunrise Rotary club received a large donation of medical supplies. From bandages, to hospital beds, there were a lot of items to be sorted through, organised, counted and repackaged. A doctor and fellow member of the Gold Coast Medical Association, was able to get 2 pallets of medical supplies sent to…
The Man, the Myth, the Builder
By Kristen Jewson |
Des La Rance, a Order of Australia Reciepient, has been the driving force of the building of this project. Along with the assistance of 3 Rotaract clubs, and the many Rotarians that spend their Saturday mornings at the shed, Des has worked tirelessly for the last 8 months of the physical build of the medical…
How it all started.
By Kristen Jewson |
This project didn’t come along by chance, thanks to the hard work of Rotarians around Australia and Pentecost Island, we are working towards helping those living on Pentecost island a lot safer, and giving them the opportunity to offer better medical help to fellow island inhabitants. Below an excerpt out of the Global Grant: Currently…
Mauna Health Centre Newsletter
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