Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas presented a cheque of K300, 000 to Rural Airstrip Agency all to improve the airstrips in the province. Governor Ipatas said there are more than three airstrip in Enga Province and this initiative the provincial government is supporting, is to reach out to those people in the remote areas. “I am happy to help and see this initiative well carried out so that more people in the remote villages and can access to air travel”. “The National Government is also in support with the initiative taken by Rural Airstrip Agency with the idea of maintaining this project”. The Governor further stated, in this project they will be working in collaboration with Rural Airstrip Agency and they look forward to providing more funds through the National Government to make sure they serve the vast population missing out on services in the rural settings. The cheque was received by the CEO for Rural Airstrip Agency Hau’ofa Sailasa where he thanked Governor Ipatas for the support and declared to establish more rural airstrip in Enga Province. Mr. Sailasa explained that the development of airstrip in PNG is growing where they have improved transportation in a lot of rural areas across the country and with such support, it is a boost to their work. “Over the year we have worked hard trying establish airstrip and from record the team have reached a total of 79, 000 airstrips built in Papua New Guinea”. Mr. Sailasa elaborated that the rural airstrip is a mode of transport where it can easily be accessed to exporting goods from the rural farmers and also providing medical supplies and help to the unfortunate ones in the isolated environment.

All medical and health practitioners of Western province have been advised yesterday through a memo from the Director Curative Health Services Dr. Mirriam Boga to get registered with the PNG Medical Health Board and Nursing Councils. CEO for Western Provincial Health Authority Dr. Niko Wuatai explained, they would like to confirm all the casual health nurses and health practitioners working at the hospital and carry out internal recruitment. “One of the recruitment conditions for us to do the internal recruitment is to get every staff registered first”. “On the same exercise we want to recruit additional staff and we are looking at 250 more to join our team at the hospital”. The annual registration period will be due on 31st March this year and as much as possible they encourage all staff not to miss out. Dr. Wuatai added that they engaged a consultant in line with the hospitals restructure program to improve general performance of staff and operations at the hospital. With the help of the consultant, the team will be able to put everything together in their proposal and submit to Department of Personal Management which is the responsible government department for the health workforce and all other public servants in the country. The Western Provincial Health Authority is taking a huge step in getting the staff and operations of the hospital aligned with what the government is pushing for in Health Sector which is quality services. Dr. Wuatai stated, that they are ranked second last in terms of performance and with this approach now, they intend to bring improvement on their overall performance as well as their approach towards vital services on nutrition, Tuberculosis treatment, family planning and other areas of responsibility.

An ethnic clash that sparked between the Wabag's and Tari's two days ago just outside the Gerehu main market in Port Moresby has now being contained, according to Police Station Commander, Inspector Hanson Tokali. “A Tari man got into argument with another man from Wabag after he did not want to repay the money he borrowed from the Wabag man. They both exchanged punches and the situation escalated.” According to the station commander, both man were betel-nut sellers who carry out their daily sellings outside the Gerehu Main Market. The two men mobilized their tribesmen and a fight ensued opposite the market at the Gerehu sports ground, luckily the police were quick to respond and contained the situation. “There has been one reported to have been injured but no reports of casualties since yesterday. The four suspects that have caused the harm are known by police and will be apprehended.” According to the inspector there has been no damage to the main market or harm to any civilians but the police had removed and destroyed tables and betel-benches on the sidewalk to prevent such incidents to reoccur in the nearby future. “Our men removed the tables that are used to sell betel-nut after the clash to avoid such incidents to happen in the future because you never know, any innocent civilian could be harmed as well as properties damaged” “We are enforcing the rules put in place by the city council to ensure the outlook of our city is decent and free from such incidents.” All business houses and market within the suburb are back to normal and the situation has been contained by police as of yesterday.

The Capital Touch Association will be hosting their pre- season games this Sunday 22nd January at the Sir John Guise stadium, Port Moresby. There are five divisions confirmed and they are Junior Boys/Girls Under 10 and 12, Junior under 18, Open mIx, Senior mix and Open men’s. According to Referee and Technical Development Officer Billy Karava, the games will start at 11am with matches for the Junior Under 10s and will conclude at 4:30pm with the open men’s games. “We have included Junior Under 10 and 12 for the first time in our competition as development program for this year and with the same idea of encouraging parents to bring their kids over to the field and participate”. Draws have been finalized and sent out to participating teams for each of the division of the tournament. In each of the divisions, will see ten teams to go up against each in the pre- season games. Mr. Karava also encourage interesting clubs to join and be part of the competition. “It’s a family association and we welcome anyone to be part of this new journey of touch football competition in our amazing Port Moresby, the Capital city of PNG with Capital Touch.”

The main rugby oval, Londolovit on Lihir Island will come alive on the 17th -19th of February, 2023 when the New Ireland Rugby Union hosts the Islanders 7's tournament. New Ireland Rugby Union (NIRU) President Charlie Melachon has confirmed this and further stated that the tournament will see a variety of rugby clubs within New Ireland come together to participate and promote the spirit of rugby within the province. According to President Melachon, there are 6 registered clubs under NIRU that will participate in the tournament and the union is focusing on hosting the three-day tournament on Lihir to purposely establish a rugby association for the island. “The Islanders 7s tournament that will be hosted at Londolovit will only feature teams from the different clubs within the province to take part and this tournament is the lead up towards the establishment of Lihir Rugby Union club that will bring the number of clubs to 7”, said the president. Currently there are six clubs registered under NIRU, Kavieng Urban Rugby Club, Kara Rugby Club, Nalik Rugby Club, Central (New Ireland) Rugby Club, Namatanai Rugby Club and the Matalai Rugby Club. Hopefully after the tournament, Lihir Rugby Club will be established. President Melachon also stated that they are also looking at establishing two more clubs apart from the initial Lihir Rugby Union club, and they are Lovongai Rugby Club and Murat Rugby Club. Mr Melachon made in light also that the union is sponsored by different businesses all throughout the province however all information relating to sponsors and the three-day winning prizes will be confirmed by Friday after the board sits in for a briefing. Despite challenges being faced whilst preparing for the tournament, Melachon said he is sure the tournament will be a success. “We faced a lot of challenges mainly in the work of re-establishing rugby associations within the province, scouting proper sponsors as well as getting support from the provincial government’ “We are involving youths and individuals to abstain them from causing problems in their communities and to show them the benefits of sports.” Mr Melachon encourages more participation from individuals and youths within the province as NIRU will be up on its feet this year. He urges youths especially to participate in tournaments and programs that will be carried out by NIRU this year. “NIRU is also calling out to businesses as well as parents and guardians to show support to the association and their children as there will be a lot of organized programs for rugby within the province this year”, Melachon said.

More than 300 women have visited the Nazareth Center for Rehabilitation seeking counselling services and help with issues they are  faced with in the community. According to Advocacy Coordinator and Laywoman Agnes Titus, the center has been given hope by by way of giving advice to women who need it and assisting the whole population of Bougainville including men. Mrs. Titus said it was  disheartening to learn that most of the women clients were sexually abused in the villages as well as in their families. The Catholic ministry of sisters, Nazareth Congregation has been working in collaboration with International Women's Agency in carrying out projects in the Bougainville region especially in helping out the unfortunate who face issues in the community. This year they had developed a plan to extend their work in partnering with Australian Donors in an agreement known as the Australia Bougainville Partnership. Mrs. Titus stated, the Nazareth center is operating in accordance to national and international standards with support from their Australian counterparts providing help not only at the center but processing and referring serious cases to the hospitals and the court to have perpetrators prosecuted. “We provide accommodation to our clients and at the same time make sure they eat three meals in a day when they are with us”. “There are staff that assist children with juvenile care and services ensuring they receive counselling from time to time”. The center is fortunate to have a vehicle that helps the staff and clients in transporting them to the different safe houses in the northern part of Bougainville. The staff are calling for avenues to address the issues, believing that it is not the PNG behavior. Mrs. Titus said woman and girls have a lot to contribute in terms of nation building and deserve the respect and care from the men and boys within the communities,

The cold weather around the Rabaul catchment area in East New Britain (ENB) has seen a lot of people diagnosed at the Rabaul Town Clinic with malaria. According to Health Extension officer Kala Mak, the hospital has recorded 120 cases of malaria so far since New Year. However, the good thing is that at this time the hospital is able to sustain its operation with enough staff providing treatment and enough medical drug supply in stock. “The availability of staff is fine, we have enough staff at the hospital”. “Our supply of drugs from the Area Medical store in Kokopo is monthly so we do not have issues on that. Only on situation where is a need, we do submit supplement and urgent order, so to help our operation at the hospital”. But the unfortunate thing is that the Rabaul Town Clinic is operating with no ambulance at the moment which is a burden to the staffs working at the clinic. Officer Mak highlighted that the clinic has been using the St. John Ambulance and other PMV to transport referral patients to the Nonga General Hospital. Sometimes the District Government assist with transport and recently they had to do referral of three cases of severe asthma and pneumonia  over to the main hospital. Beside that, there are minor cases of self-inflicted that are also reported to the clinic and which the staff were able to sustain all those cases right away. Mrs. Mak stated, the clinic is needing a proper set up or new infrastructure development that will include minor theatre for emergency purposes.

Kikori Hospital in the Gulf province is continuously receiving number of trauma cases at the hospital. According to the Clinical service Matron Ladi Kalama, more than five cases of trauma were reported to the hospital last week. “This was a continuous thing from last year where people used to come in with knife wounds”. Kalama said of the cases reported, the staffs had made referral of two cases to the Port Moresby General Hospital. Mr. Kalama explained that due to the same boundary shared with Southern Highland province, mostly those cases brought to the hospital were coming from the Kagua Erave community. Meanwhile, the hospital recorded three emergency cases last week of the mothers coming in to give birth. However, the hospital is operating in a run down building and  therefore, they cannot properly cater for pregnant mothers as well. This leaves them with a lot of areas to address in terms of better operation and services to the people of Kikori. “This hospital needs to be upgraded to level four so that it can meet the demand and vast population of the Gulf Province”. Mr. Kalama stated, they are working on a management plan at the moment for the hospital and they hope to carry out the plan of upgrade soon. “We need materials and equipment like X- ray, Pharmacist and laboratory technicians which help the staff to serve patients from the Kikori hospital”. “On the other it will cut down the cost for patients travelling to Port Moresby to get proper treatment”. In the meantime, the hospital is in need of more doctors to help out the medical staff. Mr. Kalama has spoken to the Provincial Health Authority and District Development Authority to secure a land space which can be used to carry out new development and infrastructure for the Kikori Hospital. Currently the hospital is managed by the Gulf Christian service, which is an inter denomination organization. Gulf Christian Service is managing two hospital which is the Kapuna Rural hospital and Kikori hospital, and at this time it needs assistance for the betterment of the hospital and good service operations.

A PMV truck travelling to Kwikila in the Central Province overturned along the Boku inland road on Saturday resulting in two people being injured. Sister in charge at the Kwikila Health Center Anna Atop stated, the two people had spinal injuries and have been transported to the Port Moresby General Hospital yesterday. Sister Atop added, that the hospital is currently running low on its stock of drugs and from time to time the staff have been telling patients to buy their own medication from Pharmacies or visit the Port Moresby General Hospital. “Our supply for the festive season is out and now we are operating with a little number of drugs and it should finish by this week”. “During Christmas and New Year, we did not receive a lot of accidents that’s why even though our next drug supply is not in yet, the hospital is still serving patients from the supply delivered over the festive period”. “We have only common drugs at the hospital right now and can only cater for minor illnesses”. With a lot of rain in the Kwikila area at this time, the hospital has noticed a lot of patients coming in and that is the one of the challenges the health center is facing. Sister Atop also reported no emergency cases brought to the hospital over the last two weeks.

A one-day career expo was conducted on Lihir Island recently by Lihir Union of Students. The one-day expo was held on the 12th of January 2023 targeting students especially in secondary school level with the hope of preparing them for tertiary level. The Lihir Union of Students is made up of students from all tertiary institutions within the country, students from UPNG, DWU, UOG, IBS, Polytech, Teacher colleges and Nursing colleges all came together and held that one-day career expo on Lihir Island. Under the theme “Accelerate the Journey towards Lihir Destiny through the Development of Human Resource Capital”, the program was focused on providing information on how students could follow their career pathways and achieve their goals, said Lihir Union of Students Acting President Miss Latisha Labongis. It was held at the Londolovit Meri Development Center and was attended by secondary school students from Lihir Secondary School, Utu Secondary School, Madina Girls High School, Namatanai Secondary as well as non-school leavers. The program started off with guest speakers from Newcrest Limited and Anitua Group Limited emphasizing on Training Development opportunities in accordance to the destiny plan that was established by the Mining Company, purposely to equip people on the island with effective human resource, sustainability and self-reliance. Ms. Labongis stated that the major career expo played an important role in providing a genuine insight to students, on which career pathways are suitable for them according to their academic strengths. “We try to help these students identify pathways that are more suitable for them according to what subjects they’re currently studying so they know their place”, according to Acting President Labongis. She highlighted also that several business houses on the island were invited to the expo to provide information on their respective roles in education based on scholarships and training development programs they provide. The expo was put into three main categories, Science, Social Sciences and Business enabling students to acquire information to education pathways and what requirements to meet to be accepted into a specific institution. “The three main subject booths were being set up in the hall and students went to the ones relating to their subjects and how they could apply, which was very easy and informative for them”, said Miss Labongis. “Under each category, all related courses and strands were explained by tertiary students who are in those field of study.” Interestingly the expo also included a booth for FODE students who are interested to better their grades to further their studies. “The FODE booth was to give non-school leavers a chance to follow their career pathways and achieve their goals in life also says”, says Ms Labongis. Ms Labongis detailed that prior to the recent career expo held for the high school students, the Lihir Student Union also had a previous Expo for kids last year around late November, and that was to help children develop goals and attitudes towards achieving their goals at an early age.

PNG top boxer John Ume is in gearing up to attend more competition this year to build his experience and bring more confidence to his career. “Having a feel in most international games would help my experience grow and this will help me in career building in Olympics, Oceania and Common Wealth games.” Mr. Ume who has been representing Papua New Guinea for eight years in a row said, the biggest challenge faced is the COVID- 19 pandemic, which had caused a lot of disturbances in terms closure of gyms and quarantine protocols. “Everything was hard for me, because I had to abide to pandemic protocols which was a halt to me having to disallow me from training sessions”. “I was not able to travel out for some of my international games, but I hope to overcome this challenge this time around.” The amateur boxer resumed his training last week Monday along with Head Coach Mark Keto and other athletes. “It’s a bit hard coming back for training after having a lot of food with families over the festive period. I had to do a lot to get back to my pace in training." “Training is not easy, it’s tough which I believe I need to endure through for my own good”. Mr. Ume highlighted that he wants to concentrate more on speed and footwork during this training period. In the meantime, he is preparing towards the National Championship in April, which a team is going to be finalized for the Pacific and Oceania games. He further thanked the individuals that had helped him along the way including the Head Coach Keto and the sponsors and PNG Sports Foundation together with Boxing Union.

The Butuwin Health Center in East New Britain Province is experiencing an outbreak of flu case which is suspected  to be COVID-19. Officer in Charge (OIC) of the health centre Mr. Clement Diap, said that these cases will have to be tested first to confirm if its COVID. “The cases have shown symptoms to be related to covid-19 virus, but we just need to do proper testing before we advise the patients.” In the past few weeks of January, Mr. Diap and his staff have worked under a lot of pressure due to number of patients visiting the hospital with the recent outbreak of flu cases as well as treating patients with Malaria cases. “The management here has been advised that medical store in the province had run out of drug supply which we can use to treat patients," he added. “So, at the moment we only have common drugs and for that we are able to treat patients with Malaria.” Meanwhile, four people have been admitted to the Butuwin Health Center with injuries sustained from an armed hold up that took place along the Baliora and Giregire road in East New Britain. OIC Diap said of the four casualties, three were reported to be knife wounds while the other person was injured after he jumped out of the bus. Diap also added that with a lot going on at the hospital, there is now a realization that the hospital need one more Health Extension Officer (HEO), which would help relief the workload. Mr. Diap explained that the population in their catchment area is growing, something which they see is a burden to them at the hospital.