RAWCS Northern Region

DIK Newsletter January 2017

Welcome to DIK’s new newsletter format for 2017 in which we will be bring you monthly reports and news items on our activities.

Do we make a difference?

Please join me while I recount our Christmas Vacation and I hope you will agree that we do, ‘make a difference’.

For Christmas with a difference we embarked on a cruise to Papua New Guinea on

18th December last year arriving initially at Alotua in Milne Bay Province of PNG.

Having never been to PNG this was

our first experience of the islands

north of Australia and we were

made very welcome by the local

Papuans and spent an enjoyable

couple of hours at the special cultur-

al display they put on for the cruise ship passengers. While there is no Rotary Club in

Alotua it was obvious that the regular arrival of cruise ships was a considerable boost to

the local economy.

The next day we anchored off Kitava Island and were ferried ashore in the ship’s tenders landing at

a small jetty and walking onto the beach where we were met by the local islanders who had come to

greet us and set up their small stalls of hand made souvenirs. School children sat in groups or stood

and danced to attract donations for their education. Again the arrival of cruise ships are now an

important part

of the island

economy.

On Friday 23rd December we reached Rabaul, East

New Britain Province of PNG and to our delight Presi-

dent Tony Liluo of the Rotary Club of Kokopo was wait-

ing to greet us along with several members of the Ko-

kopo Rotary Club.

Kokopo Rotary Club are one of the recipients of containers of medical and

educational supplies from Donations in Kind and they were only too

pleased to show us where goods previously received had been put to good

use.

Our first visit was to the Nonga General Hospital which had been exten-

sively damaged in the volcanic eruptions of 1994 and while the administra-

tion building had been replaced with a new one the rest of the hospital was

still recovering twenty-two years after the disastrous volcanic eruptions that

buried the town of Rabaul. The Citizens of Rabaul had warning and fled to

Kokopo some twenty kilometres away.

We were introduced to several staff and given a tour of the Hospital.

152 Freeman Road, Durack Qld 4077

RAWCS Northern Region

DIK Newsletter January 2017 Page (2)

The Nunga General Hospital

staff quarters and training ward

still stand as they did after the

volcanic ash was cleared away

twenty-two years ago.

Below—Operating Theatre en-

trance, Casualty room and scale

of fees.

Below, more instructions and examples of hospital equipment provided by DIK. Note the cleanliness and care taken by the staff with these stores.

Below, the DIY laundry for patients and relatives plus the two operating theatres, note the auxiliary lighting in the second picture.

As a ‘regular’ at DIK each Thursday I was moved by the friend-

ship extended to my wife Kerri and I by the Kokopo Rotary

Club and I hope this brief report illustrates the satisfaction we

had when we saw the results of our work at Donations in Kind.

Our cruise continued to Kiriwina & Doini Islands before return-

ing to Brisbane on 28th December.

We urge all Rotarians and their friends to support the work

done by DIK and to visit PNG for first hand experience on how

‘we do make a difference’.

Ted Horsbrugh

Rotary Club of Toowong International Service Team

email:- ted.horsbrugh@yahoo.com.au

https://donations.rawcs.com.au/Default.aspx?

ProjectID=789&ReturnTo=4

Alternatively mail cheques to; Col Laurenson, Rotary –

DIK, P.O.Box 1110, Sunnybank Hills, 4109