Did you know that there has been an ongoing cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea? Well, I must say, I didn’t know – it hasn’t really come up much in the news and I haven’t heard of any relief efforts at all. I just didn’t have any idea that this small neighbouring country is in need of urgent assistance.
Cholera of course is an acute intestinal infection, primarily spread through contaminated water and food, which can actually be easily treated by replacement of fluid and salts lost through diarrhoea. Unfortunately, when cholera occurs in an unprepared community, case-fatality rates can be as high as 50%.
In Papua New Guinea, thousands of people have been infected with cholera and Radio Australia is reporting that 300 people have died. VaccineNewsDaily.com describes the island of Daru as one of the hardest hit areas with at least 800 people diagnosed and another 300 people requiring emergency treatment, all relying on the small and underequipped 60-bed Daru General Hospital. I didn’t realise that there was a need, that our neighbours were dying from a preventable condition.
I didn’t know, but local leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Papua New Guinea realised the need and communicated to the broader Pacific church area leaders. The Pacific church leaders then communicated to church headquarters in Salt Lake City and relief efforts were begun. How wonderful to belong to a worldwide church with a clear and responsive line of authority so that problems across the globe can receive the necessary help and attention. I didn’t realise that our neighbours in PNG needed assistance, but because of my church, last Thursday, I got to help in a very real and practical way.
My local congregation and our neighbouring congregation were put on alert last Sunday that 3 pallets of goods would be arriving for PNG. We were asked to make ourselves available to pack 2 500 hygiene kits that needed to be assembled, ready to be shipped within 24-hours – the goods were expected on Thursday. When I arrived at the chapel on Thursday afternoon, the work was well underway. There were about 100 people milling around the hall and the room was abuzz with noise and activity. Boxes being opened, small bottles of sanitiser and bars of soaps being poured into larger boxes to allow for easy access, toothbrushes, and toothpaste boxes overflowing from their boxes and handtowels and facecloths being prepared for each pack. Everyone was assigned a job, pickers prepared the contents of the kit for packers who were busily putting the kits together and finishers wrapping each kit and putting them in boxes. Mothers, students, grandmothers, men arriving from work in business suits, family, friends and neighbours, all working side by side preparing the hygiene kits. Two thousand five hundred hygiene kits didn’t sound like much to me, but there were just boxes and boxes all over the chapel. As the work progressed, the sound of Christmas carols playing in the background touched my heart. While we were wondering what food to prepare for Christmas day, wrestling with choosing gifts for family and friends, families in PNG were worrying about surviving another day. I wished that I could do more, but it felt so wonderful to be doing something to help in a small way. As the evening drew to a close and the last hygiene pack was finished, we stretched out muscles that hurt from the repetitive task, cleaned up the now empty boxes and stacked the newly packed boxes with a grateful heart and a prayer for the wellbeing of the people of Papua New Guinea.
In preparing this post, I learnt that our small contribution was just a tiny part of the relief efforts coordinated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In November an initial shipment of eight tons of rice, four tons of fish, four tons of flour, 1 000 cakes of antibacterial soap and four tons of cooking oil were delivered to Daru. A further 2 500 water bottles, to be used in making stream and catchment water clean enough to drink were then shipped from the Church’s Salt Lake City Humanitarian Centre. By the end of November, the Church had chartered a plane from Australia that transported two doctors - Dr. Williams and Dr. Mahler – with additional relief supplies from Cairns to Daru. The shipment included one ton of medical aid, 10 000 Aqua tabs, IV solution, catheters, zinc tablets, and ancillary equipment. The first two doctors just arrived back in Australia this weekend and two more have been sent to continue the work. There is still much to be done and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be there to work with other relief organisations to administer to the sick and the needy. How amazing it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For more information on the Church's humanitarian efforts in PNG, click here
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