MTS Foundation Charity - Papua New Guinea

Josephstaal people joy over arrival of Tractor

US Helicopter crew handing over key to Sir Peter


JOSEPHSTAAL Josephstaal is situated in the Middle Ramu District of the Madang Province. Although it is just 60 nautical miles by air from Madang and 25 nautical miles from the coast in what is known as the Ramu Valley. it is only accessible by air. The road between Bogia and Josephstaal was re-opened in 2 years ago by a grant from the National Government, regretfully in sufficient to resurface and complete bridges. Heavy rain over the past 2 years has closed the road and it is now impassable to any vehicle. The Guam Bridge (above) is being undermined byb flood waters. Further funds were released in 2007 but insufficient to re-open the road resulting in the road remaining closed. The population in the Josephstaal area is approximately 7000. A survey carried out a decade ago by Dr Carol Jenkins from IMR indicated the people of Josephstaal had the highest infant mortality rate and the highest rate of women in childbirth in the Pacific. It was for this reason the Chairman of Melanesian Foundation asked for assistance from the US Army to assist with urgent maintenance of the Josephstaal Health Centre and the pictures show some of the work undertaken by the US and PNG Defense personnel coordinated by the Melanesian Foundation.
EDUCATION The School at Josephstaal has been seriously effected by the closure of the road and airstrip. Teachers are reluctant to serve in the distict as a result of the poor access. The Josephstaal Comunity School operated by the Catholic Church had an enrollment of more than 600 children with just 4 teachers. Few youths from Josephstaal have the opportunity to attend high school or university and this fact is compounding the slow development of the region.
AIRSTRIP The airstrip was built by the Australian Administration and Catholic church prior to Independence. The airstrip can take hercules, caribou, twin-otters and a variety of smaller aircraft operated by Island Airways and MAF. Like the road, due to lack of fuel, grass cutting equipment including a tractor the airstrip remained closed for almost 18 months until the Melanesian Foundation paid the local people to cut the airstrip by hand, purchase windsocks, marker cones and finally a tractor and grass slasher to re-open the airstrip. The pictures show the US Helicopter delivering the tractor purchased by the Foundation and the crew handing over the keys to Sir Peter.
WORK YET TO BE COMPLETED Following the departure of the US Army, the Melanesian Foundation sent in an electrician to undertake re-wiring of the health centre, installation of lights, a new genset and most recently a water pump and suction hose was installed to allow water to be pumped from the river to the Health Centre in the dry season. The Foundation will also contionue to upgrade some of aid posts in the region. In late July, the Australian Army assisted most health centres in Madang when they flew in medical supplies to the Health Centres for distribution to the aid posts. In addition, cement was carried to Simbai for a water tank. The operation was coordinated by Peter Memafu, the Director of the Melanesian Foundation working in consltation with the various churches and the Provincial Health Advisor.
COMMUNICATIONS Josephstaal Health Centre like many other health centres in PNG have an HF/SSB radio which is apart of the National Health Radio Network. The radios at Josephstaal were initially donated and installed by the Melanesian Foundation and have been maintained for the past 15 years by the Foundation until replacement radios were supplied by AusAID. The Health Radio is the only means of communicating with the outside world and the maintenance of the radios is entirely dependent on the MF.