Successful outreach to under-served PNG province

Alotau is the capital of Milne Bay Province, which contains some of the most remote island communities in the world. It is located on the northern shore of Milne Bay and has a population of 10,000. 

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has been working in partnership with Alotau Hospital for some time.  We have trained its two eye nurses, Lemassi Kissai and Chris Paison, and have helped establish an eye clinic which treats all basic eye conditions and prescribes glasses.  Surgical conditions can only be treated during outreach visits from our main clinic and training centre in Madang as there is no local ophthalmologist.

Our first ever outreach visit to Alotau took place in September 2009.  So many people arrived for care that we were not able to treat everyone and had to turn people away.  We therefore arranged a second outreach visit as quickly as possible with a focus on cataract surgeries which took place in March 2010.  Over the almost two weeks we were there we performed 148 eye operations, 115 of these were cataract.  We also dispensed more than 120 spectacles.

3 weeks ahead of the outreach, Lamassi Kesai made a series of radio announcements and sent posters out to all the local health posts to let local people know that the outreach team was coming.  By 9am on the first day of the outreach, despite torrential rain, nearly 70 people were waiting to be seen.

We were fortunate to be accompanied on our journey by Hollows NZ donor and supporter Lisa Crandall of ImageMe - Auckland Portrait Photography.  

Over the next few weeks we hope to share stories and photos of the outreach and some of the people we helped.  One person we met is Jean, a 56-year old grandmother who had been blind for several years.  View Jean’s story here.

Senmily Noma's story featured in our latest newsletter and you can read more of her story here.