Postcard from Nauru
06 September 2011
You've got mail! Read a postcard from AVI deployee Min Tanuvasa Lene, working as a health professional in Nauru's Ministry of Health.
Left: Min Tanuvasa Lene (R) with fellow PACTAM deployee Dr Lepani Waqatakirewa (L). Image courtesy Min Tanuvasu Lene.
AVI deployee Min Tanuvasa Lene is working as a Health Service Educator in Nauru's Ministry of Health, alongside fellow PACTAM deployee Dr Lepani Waqatakirewa, who is also working at the Ministry as a Health Service Adviser.
Min sends us a postcard from Nauru:
My dear friends and colleagues,
My PACTAM colleague Dr Lepani Waqatakirewa and I represented the Nauru Department of Health in the recent Nauru high school career expo program.
Our booth displays and presentation was to promote and encourage school leavers to take up a career in health, and judging by the response we received, it went very well. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience as it gave us an opportunity to engage with teachers, students, parents and the local community while showcasing health careers as the preferred choice for post-secondary studies.
One of the many challenges in Nauru is the shortage of qualified health care practitioners, hence the importance of developing local capacity in all professional streams and promoting local ownership of health care services. Nauru has no tertiary institution and has to send students overseas for further studies.
Because Dr Lepani and I do not speak Nauruan, we included a Nauruan graduate nurse and a health trainee student in our team to help with translation and to answer those difficult questions. In addition, they spoke to students about the courses they were doing, their experiences and the benefits of being a health care professional.
Hope you enjoy the photos!
Love to all,
Min Tanuvasa Lene
Find out more
Read about our work in Nauru
Read about PACTAM (Pacific Technical Assistance Mechanism)