See Niki B...: Go Visit Nguna

Well I needed a break from training and when the opportunity came up to go and visit the surrounding Aid Posts/Dispensaries/Health Clinic. I thought I'd be clever and choose to visit the Dispensary on Nguna a small island just off of Efate (you can see it from P-town) - so I got to get out of town and complete an assignment :) A few of us went together on the 45 minute boat ride and 45 minute walk up to the village to visit Leiwaku - the nurse that works at the Dispensary. I think it renewed all our spirits to see another village and to practice our Bislama skills - it got us all excited for our future sites (and it seems as Leiwaku let it slip that one of the health volunteers will be calling Nguna there home very soon).

So, as a little background on the interworking of the health care system in Vanuatu let me try to briefly describe how it works (keep in mind I still am learning too)… Each village (in a perfect world) will have a health committee that designates one person in the community to be trained (10 wk program) as a Village Health Worker (VHW) and then run the Aid Post in the community. Now the VHW can do basic first aid and can give medication for common ailments - however it isn't stocked with drugs and if there is a serious problem the patient must be referred. There are problems that arise in this situation as some villages don't have a properly functioning health committee and therefore don't have a aid post or they may have a VHW but they cant continue to work and support their family (they may not have enough money or can't get to the garden to get food - that's also why the health committee is so important as a village they need to support the VHW). The next step on the health care chain is the Dispensary, which is supposed to have a nurse and possible a nurse aide as well (however in many cases it’s just one of the two) and the facility can do first aid, treat ailments, deliver babies and is stocked with medications. The next step on the referral system – since at the dispensary they can not necessarily diagnose everything and a patient may need to go to the hospital or if the problem is too big they will go to the nearest hospital. But we are on islands here and due to weather and distance trying to get to a hospital can be a difficult task.