Celebrating 50 years of Independence and Partnership

During the last five decades Papua New Guinea has developed a strong sense of national identity and a deep pride in the country’s diversity, vibrancy, rich culture and history.

Australian volunteers have stood alongside Papua New Guinea since 1964, when the first Australian volunteer supported a local partner, through independence, to today.

To celebrate Papua New Guinea’s 50 Years of Independence, and the longstanding collaboration between the Australian Volunteers Program and our partners in PNG, we’re highlighting the work of five key partner organisations.

From community development to maternity services, healthcare to disability support, these organisations are driving change in their communities, and we are proud to be part of their ongoing work.

National St John Ambulance PNG

St John Ambulance is a long-standing partner of the Australian Volunteers Program and has received support from more than 30 volunteers since 2018. St John Ambulance provides the only free ambulance transport in PNG for public patients.

Australian volunteers have supported a wide range of functions at St John Ambulance, including paramedic mentoring and education, public health, finance, first aid, staff wellbeing, clinical nursing mentoring and human resources.

Dr Arabella Koliwan, the Deputy Medical Director for St John Ambulance says the Australian Volunteers Program has been ‘a big supporter of the organisation’, especially for capacity strengthening ‘where we might lack expertise, or we need a bit of support delivering the service'.

The latest Australian volunteer to join St John Ambulance is Business Development Mentor Lydia Jovero. ‘Lydia is looking at how we can expand revenue streams for the organisation,’ explains Arabella. ‘This is particularly important because although we receive government funding, as an organisation we’re required to raise about 30% of our operational budget from revenue streams [each year].'

‘Lydia has been instrumental in looking at how we are generating revenue and looking at how we can potentially expand that.’

Lydia encourages others to consider volunteering in Papua New Guinea. ‘Im learning from the community about the culture, the tradition,’ she says. ‘The people are marvelous; everybody is really willing to help… I’ll volunteer again in Papua New Guinea!’

Waniati Maternal Waiting Home

Papua New Guinea has one of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the world – and Waniati Maternal Waiting Home, in the Eastern Highlands, is working to change that.

Waniati’s founders - husband and wife team Victor Timothy and Bolena Azimo - transformed their family home into the Waniati Maternal Waiting Home and gave up their paid jobs to service the most vulnerable mothers in most remote parts of the Eastern Highlands.

‘Our main objective is to help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in the Eastern Highlands and in Papua New Guinea as a whole’, explains Victor.

The charity, based in Goroka, provides expectant mothers with basic accommodation, two meals a day, pre-natal health checks and transportation to the nearby hospital when they are in labour. After giving birth, the mothers return to Waniati to receive post-natal, infant health checks and breast-feeding support, before returning to their home villages.

Eighty per cent of Papua New Guinea’s population live in remote communities, with limited access to healthcare services, including maternal care and childbirth assistance.

‘Most mothers want to go for supervised delivery, but their nearest service is very far,’ explains Bolena. She says some mothers travel on foot up to a week just to get to a bus-stop where they can catch a bus to Waniati.

Waniati is entirely volunteer run and relies on grants and donations to support mothers.

Four Australian volunteers have supported Waniati’s work in the areas of management, IT and website development, and maternal and child health mentoring. The Australian Volunteers Program has also proudly supported Waniati with a small grant to increase the organisation’s vital community outreach services.

Port Moresby General Hospital

Port Moresby General Hospital is the largest hospital in Papua New Guinea, and the Emergency Department alone treats at least 40,000 patients each year.

Since 2023, the Australian Volunteers Program has partnered with the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine to provide three Australian volunteers to support the work at the hospital’s emergency department.

Dr Amanda Zhou is the latest Australian volunteer to support the department as a Visiting Emergency Medicine Registrar. Amanda has been wowed by the clinical skills of the medical and nursing staff in the department. ‘I’m learning a lot from them,’ she says.

Amanda is working with colleagues to pilot a patient trauma registry. ‘There is a lot of trauma that happens in PNG, but unfortunately there’s no register because of under-staffing [and] the lack of technological resources,’ she explains. Another area Amanda is supporting is encouraging and optimising teamwork: ‘which will ultimately lead to better patient care’.

Dr Mangu Kendino, Emergency Physician, says there’s no shortage of how the hospital can continue to work with the Australian Volunteers Program. She’s hoping that support in the future can expand to: ‘the nursing division, and across other sectors in administration, finance, [and] governance'.

Amanda recommends volunteering in Papua New Guinea to other health professionals: ‘put yourself out there, be open, and you’ll learn a lot’.

Touching the Untouchables

For more than 15 years, Touching the Untouchables (TTU) has provided vital health and outreach services to rural communities across Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province.

Founder and Director Esther Silas says since the organisation’s beginning in 2009, TTU has transformed people’s lives throughout the province: ‘Our program aims to cover everyone, inclusive of children, women, [and] marginalised populations. It has improved the livelihood of the people in the community, it has reduced the number of preventable diseases, so behaviour change has happened in community, in school and at the health facility level over the 15 years.’

Since 2014, TTU has received support from 13 Australian volunteers, which Esther says has been invaluable to the development of the organisation. ‘The Australian Volunteers Program has had a big influence in the organisation,’ says Esther, explaining that capacity strengthening is one of the greatest achievements of the partnership.

Aboriginal man Andrew Bolam is the latest Australian volunteer to work with TTU – as a Program Management Mentor in Eco-Tourism.

Esther has wanted to find a way to support rural communities to be economically empowered, which has led to TTU starting a program to enable women in rural communities to grow and sell coffee beans. The Eastern Highlands is well known for its exceptional coffee quality. Another avenue which Andrew has helped TTU explore is eco-tourism.

‘We have to come up with a way forward to economically empower [remote communities] so they can have something for their children, for education, and [so]... they could have something to provide for the family,’ says Esther.

Andrew explains the project is about ‘village development in the first instance and looking to tourism… to provide another form of income and livelihood in the villages.’

‘Rural communities [in Papua New Guinea] are still very much looking for a way to remain relevant and vital and do things like preserve their culture and traditional way of life and still have an opportunity into the future.’

CSNU (Callan Services National Unit)

CSNU is an NGO which advocates and provides services for people with disabilities in Papua New Guinea. ‘We advocate for accessibility [and] for the needs of the people we serve’, says Baeau Tai, Director of Callan Services.

‘Callan Connect’ - a current program of Callan Services – is providing outreach services to people with disabilities in rural and remote areas at four project sites across Papua New Guinea. Callan Connect offers screening services for hearing, vision and eye health and mobility. If health workers identify a need, such as a hearing aid or wheelchair, Callan Services will provide that service to the individual.

Jess Lesley, Program Manager of Callan Connect, says the outreach program is reaching those most in need. ‘Many of the people come from the remotest communities’, she explains.

Rainbow Apostol is the first Australian volunteer to join Callan Services – she’s doing a 12-month assignment as an Audiology Mentor, to support the establishment of a hearing clinic in Port Moresby and help strengthen the capacity of clinical staff.

‘It’s been amazing to see how far [my colleagues] have come, [following] some of the training they have done and how excited they are about wanting to learn more and be involved in the clinic,’ says Rainbow.

Both Baeau and Jess say Rainbow has fitted in seamlessly with the team at Callan Connect in the Port Moresby head office. ‘I think she's just fitted in so well and she's just like pop of colour for this national unit’, says Baeau.

‘I must say thank you to the Australian Volunteers Program for giving us Rainbow, because we really need [her support]’, adds Jess.

The Australian Volunteers Program celebrates with Papua New Guinea on its 50 years of independence and is proud to partner with the Papua New Guinean people now and into the future. Discover more about Papua New Guinea’s rich culture and history and how Independence Day is being celebrated this year at: https://png50.co/ and https://yumistapwantaim.com/