Mackay Greats - Keith Baker
Living History – health services in Papua New Guinea
By Allen Satterlee and Dean Pallant
The unique challenges of Salvation Army mission in Papua New Guinea required unique resources.
No country on earth has made a more dramatic leap from the stone age to the nuclear age than Papua New Guinea. For countless centuries life changed very little especially in the remote areas of the Highlands. While the rest of the world was moving forward to conquer the dreaded diseases of humankind, the people of Papua New Guinea were still falling victim to these same diseases without relief. The leading killers then as now were malaria and tuberculosis. Added to these were other diseases, accidents and poor nutrition caused mainly through ignorance of the nutritional values of food items. Sickness, injury and death were the common story in villages and cities from the mountains to the sea.
When Major Keith Baker brought The Salvation Army to Papua New Guinea, the people’s suffering weighed heavily upon him. He was aware of The Salvation Army’s magnificent medical efforts in India, Africa and elsewhere and wondered if the same might not happen in Papua New Guinea.
Despite the best efforts of the government of the Australian territorial administration, there were still gaping holes in the areas served. One of these was in the Eastern Highlands around Kainantu. Here 70,000 people had no medical services. The infant death toll was estimated at 60% and many mothersdied in childbirth. These and other concerns sounded the alarm that something must be done on their behalf. It would be from Kainantu that the Army would begin its wide-ranging medical services in Papua New Guinea.
Two nursing officer sisters
Baker quickly realised that while having a medical clinic would be a good thing, there also needed to be an outreach into the surrounding areas. The answer was to purchase a mobile clinic that could negotiate the crude and rutted roads, climb impossibly steep inclines and manage the seemingly bottomless mud pits that blocked access between villages. The mobile clinic had to have the endurance of a wartime tank while carrying within it the supplies and instruments for caring for the sick.
By now the pioneering work of the Army in Papua New Guinea had captured the hearts and imaginations of people in Australia and New Zealand. The Australia Eastern Territory as the sponsor of Army work in Papua New Guinea was especially active in praying and then seeking ways to make their prayers come true. A territory-wide campaign was launched to raise money for a mobile clinic. At the same time in 1958 two single women officers were appointed to pioneer the medical work in Papua New Guinea. Captain Ruby Dalrymple, a nursing sister with impeccable qualifications was appointed from within the territory. Assisting her was the first officer to serve from outside the Australia Eastern Territory in Papua New Guinea – Lieutenant Dorothy Elphick from New Zealand who was commissioned straight to the Australia Eastern Territory for work in Papua New Guinea. Her service would become legendary spanning over thirty years until ill-health forced her into early retirement.
The first mobile clinic
The two women met in Sydney and were presented with the mobile clinic. They toured the territory to share their plans for the welfare of the people of Papua New Guinea as well as to allow people to see the modern marvel of a mobile medical clinic. The vehicle was huge – an International four-wheel drive, low ratio van with a winch on the front. It would have been a load to handle on Australian roads, let alone the almost impassable ones in Papua New Guinea. Major Jessie Jenks wrote that it consumed petrol voraciously, broke locally constructed bridges and slid into ditches with monotonous regularity. The mobile clinic was airlifted to Lae and then the plan was to drive it up to Kainantu. An indication of what lay ahead came on its trip to the Highlands. It nearly fell into a river when a rickety bridge broke beneath its weight.There it sat for days until a way to rescue it was worked out. Major Dorothy Elphick remembers: The vehicle we had was, for those days, too big, too long, too wide, too heavy. Far too heavy but it was what The Salvation Army had been advised by the Papua New Guinea Health Department run by the Australian government…Once I got into a bog I used the winch for the first time. It was when I was stuck that a man pointed out the winch to get it out of the mud. I slipped out from the wheel of the vehicle to the passenger door because I couldn’t get out the driver’s door. I got the winch organised, tied it around a tree, got back in, started up the engine and successfully pulled the tree down! With some further effort and after finding a larger tree, they were finally able to get the van out of the mud. Despite the limitations of the mobile clinic, Ruth and Dorothy used it to cover a circuit of 50 kilometres out from Kainantu and in so doing reached many villages and thousands of people.
Today
The Papua New Guinea Territory has four health centres and 18 community health posts which cared for more than 40,000 people in 2008. Almost all Salvation Army health posts have a corps (church) nearby which supports the community health worker and members of the community. HIV/Aids is an increasing problem in Papua New Guinea and The Salvation Army is at the forefront of care by supporting people in their homes as well as through two voluntary counselling, testing and care centres in Port Moresby and Kainantu.
The training of people in health ministry is an important aspect of The Salvation Army’s work in Papua New Guinea. Community health workers are trained for two years (full time) at the highly regarded training school in Kainantu. At present the school’s capacity is 50 students but the government has requested an increase to 70 due to the positive impact past graduates are having in isolated communities. Student applications always far exceed the number of places available.
Village health volunteers are trained in antenatal care, post-natal care, infant welfare, first aid and health education. Completing the five-module course demands technical skills coupled with practical experience and takes one to two years. On completion village health volunteers work alongside community health workers and complement their services. A total of 51 women have recently completed the course. They form a vital link between formal and non-formal health services in Papua New Guinea, their work helping to address high maternal and infant mortality rates.
This article first appeared in The Salvation Army's Hallelujah! magazine.
