Single mum volunteers in Gulf

COMMUNITY

By JERUSHA HANGUMA
THIS is the story of Georgina Rowe, a 34-year-old single mother of three girls from Imbonggu in Southern Highlands.
Georgina is a community health worker (CHW) who graduated with a certificate in nursing in 2007 and has a profound experience in community health work with more than 10 years of experience.
A role model in her community, she loves her profession and carries out her duties with grace and poise.
Georgina has a strong inclination to serve the sick and contribute to the well-being and healing of others.
After graduating from Mendi Nursing College, she commenced her career with the Catholic Health Mission in Mendi, Southern Highlands and had worked for the mission for almost six years.
While with the Catholic Health Mission, she was sent to serve in a remote village in Pangia for two years.
From there she was later transferred to a health sub center in Poroma in the Nipa-Kutubu District where she served in some of the remotest villages in the district for four years.
In March 2015, her contract with the Catholic Mission in Nipa was terminated resulting in her moving to Mt Hagen where she applied for a position with the Susu Mamas clinic at the Mt Hagen General Hospital. She got accepted in June 2015 and worked there for an additional six years before transferring to the Port Moresby General Hospital’s (PMGH) Susu Mama clinic in 2019.
At PMGH, she worked for nearly six months without pay until the clinic shut down.
Due to funding constraints, there was a mass resignation at the time and Georgina was one of the staff who were forced to resign in December of 2021. After she resigned, she went through so much financial difficulty as a single mother and the only support system of her children but despite those struggles, she continued helping others in her community with what knowledge and experience she had as a CHW.
In February of 2022, she got accepted to work with City Pharmacy and was placed at the Badili Stop & Shop Pharmacy.
Georgina resides at Wildlife, Erima where she pays K7 to and from work every day, which she says is a bit difficult as she has other necessities to cater for being a single mother, which led to her resigning from formal employment in January this year.
Apart from that setback, she still had the heart to serve others and kept helping those in her community. In July this year, Georgina was recruited by the National Volunteer Service of Papua New Guinea (NVS) as a volunteer to serve in the community of Elava in Malalaua District of Gulf under the supervision of Haveva Karava, a community leader there.
Additionally, she first got accepted by NVS to be placed in Namatanai in New Ireland as a volunteer in 2019 while she was still working at the Susu Mamas clinic in Port Moresby.
She was all set and ready to depart for Lae to attend the pre-service orientation (PSO) and then on to Namatanai when she learned of her father’s passing which led her to cancel her assignment and stay back with her family.
On Monday, June 19, she got a call from the NVS to attend the three-week PSO for the Southern Region volunteers which was to be held at the PNG Defence Force Goldie River Training Depot from June 20, which she gladly accepted without hesitation.

“I was very happy when I was called by NVS, my prayers were answered and I couldn’t wait to go out and serve,” Georgina said.
During the three weeks training at the Goldie Barracks, she found out that her placing would be Elava Village in Gulf. Overwhelmingly excited to leave and serve in remote Gulf, she said that she was also happy that she would be away from most challenges in the city and was looking forward to living in peace with her children and do what she believed to be her calling.
“It did not matter where I would be sent to when I received the call from NVS. I just believe in my heart that this is my calling in life and wherever God sends me, I would be grateful to do my part in serving humanity,” she said.
Georgina is equipped with profound knowledge in volunteerism because of her work with the Catholic Mission and Susu Mamas. She also voluntarily conducts outreach programmes on topics covering lifestyle diseases and how to practice healthy lifestyles. She gives free treatment to patients and does other basic health services whenever and wherever she could.
She admits she was troubled as this would be her first time to serve in a remote coastal community with her children, but she believed that God called her out there for a reason and she was confident in his judgement.
“I believe that God has a reason for sending me out there and I believe and trust in him to take care of me and my children as well as give me the wisdom and ability to serve his people in Elava.”
Georgina is a very experienced health professional, and she would be a massive help to the community of Elava.
Haveva Karava, Georgina’s supervisor and host in the community of Eleva, added that the people were grateful to NVS for accepting their request by placing a CHW volunteer in their community to assist them in providing basic health services.
Haveva assured volunteer Georgina that the community was appreciative of her sacrifice and that they would do their best to be hospitable to her and her children.
The community of Elevala also organised a welcome ceremony for the Southern Highlands volunteer and her children and welcomed her with singing, dancing and open arms to their village.
Haveva’s project is the Elava Community Aid Post which he did voluntarily in order to attract the Government to supply basic health services and medical supplies to his community instead of them moving out of the village to source such a vital service.
He envisions a proper health facility for his people and in the meantime, he encourages his people to work together to maintain the aid post while they reach out to other community-based organisations and donor agencies to assist in building a better aid post for the community.
“A CHW is a great need to the community which is why Georgina will be placed there to support the community until the end of her volunteer service agreement (VSA),” Haveva said.
“Since we do not have a CHW in our community, we have lost a lot of our community members to curable diseases and avoidable circumstances such as our women during childbirth.
“With Georgina being here, it has eased our pain and we are very happy to have her in our community.”
The community, as a sign of appreciation, also built Georgina a house in which she would reside with her children and serve the locals in the nearby aid post.
Haveva and his people also thanked the National Volunteer Service for placing Georgina in their community to meet their need in providing basic health services.
The National Volunteer Service is happy to recruit, train and send Georgina as one of the organisation’s CHW volunteers to the community of Elava village in the Malalaua, Gulf.

• Article and pictures supplied by National Volunteer Service media unit.