DAVID ADAMS reports…
For the past five years, the YWAM Medical Ships Australia vessel MV Pacific Link has brought much needed medical care to remote communities in Papua New Guinea.
But with the ship – the only medical ship currently operating in PNG – now running at capacity, the organisation is looking to replace it with a much larger vessel – the MV Ammari – in a bid to extend their impact and reach in the country. And to do that, they’re looking to raise $6.5 million.
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BRINGING NEW HOPE TO PNG: The MV Ammari which YWAM Medical Ships Australia is looking to purchase for $6.5 million will expand the organisation’s capacity to deliver aid by 500 per cent. PICTURE: Courtesy YWAM MSA The new ship is about four times larger than the current vessel, meaning that as well as doubling the number of people able to live on board from 50 to 100 people, the new vessel will offer an expanded dentistry clinic (there’s also a smaller version on board the MV Pacific Link) plus new facilities including an operating theatre, a lab and outpatients facility. |
“We’ve signed an agreement to charter the vessel (MV Ammari) for the next five months and we are fundraising at the moment to purchase that vessel,” says YWAM MSA spokesperson Anna Scott.
To that end, they’re running a “ship tour” along the east coast of Australia, calling in at 10 ports extending from Sydney to Cairns.
While the tour has already raised more than $1.5 million, Ms Scott says the tour is also about recruiting volunteers to staff the ship – the crew are all volunteers as are all the health care professionals on board – as well as supplies. “And also raising awareness about the health concerns in Papua New Guinea,” she says.
The newer ship, which is 14-years-old and was previously used to take people on cruises in the Whitsundays, will be able to operate in six provinces instead of three and enable YWAM MSA to reach hundreds more remote communities due to its shallow draft.
“It’s an aluminum catamaran (with) a draft of two metres, so it can access locations that are in extremely shallow waters which is great for us because that can often be our limitation with the other ship: not being able to access a lot of isolated communities because of our ship’s draft.”
The MV Ammari is also about four times larger than the MV Pacific Link, meaning that as well as doubling the number of people able to live on board from 50 to 100 people, the new vessel will offer an expanded version of the dental clinic already on the MV Pacific Link plus new facilities including an operating theatre, a lab and an outpatients facility.
It will also come with two tenders for team and patient transfers and four additional smaller boats which will enable on-board teams to reach multiple locations at once and so expand the number of land-based short-term healthcare clinics they operate, providing childhood immunisations, ante-natal checks, mobile dentistry and education.
The increased size of the vessel means the new ship will be able to operate for 11 months a year in Papua New Guinea, almost double the six months a year the MV Pacific Link spends there now, before returning to its home port of Townsville to recruit new volunteers, resupply and carry out maintenance on the ship.
All up, Ms Scott says it’s estimated that the increased size of the ship will mean the work that volunteers are able to carry out in PNG will be increased by a staggering 500 per cent and enable it to provide access to services ranging from dentistry and optometry to primary health care and educational resources for an estimated 188,000 people a year.
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CHANGING LIVES: YWAM volunteers are helping to provide medical assistance and education in the area of maternal and child healthcare. PICTURE: Courtesy YWAM MSA |
YWAM MSA acquired the 35-year-old MV Pacific Link from New Zealand in 2010 – it had previously been working in Samoa and Fiji.
“Really the last five years has been about assessing the needs and…this ship that we’ve been operating has been great for finding out what the needs are,” says Ms Scott. “(O)bviously we’ve been doing a lot with that ship but we’ve really reached the capacity with what we can do. It’s been a great five years but there’s more to be done.”
And the need in Papua New Guinea – Australia’s nearest international neighbour and the country with the worst health status in the South Pacific – remains great. Ms Scott says with only one dentist for every 100,000 people in PNG – and most of them living in urban centres – “we find that oral health is a huge gap in the health system and something we’ve been able to help address”.
In addition, 94 per cent of people live in malaria-affected areas and someone dies every two hours in from tuberculosis. The country also has significant child and maternal health issues to overcome – including access to immunizations – with one in 13 children dying before the age of five.
Ms Scott says the ship’s volunteers have also been able to offer support to rural health workers who are often working with limited resources and in isolation.
“So being able to come alongside the health workers working on the ground, giving them some support and encouragement and resources they need and medication has also been good as well…”
The ‘Overcoming the Impossible’ ship tour, which kicked off on the Gold Coast in July, runs along Australia’s east coast until early December.
