AWESOME TEAM EFFORT

Our group of six women including Vanessa Palfreeman, Mary Jonmudsson, Jodi Lawton, Jenni Lawton, and two midwife educators from Royal Hospital for Women (Randwick), Shea Caplice and Jacqui Andrews, went to Kiriwina, PNG, for a week at the end of April, to run a short but intense training workshop in safe birthing training for the Village Birth Attendants (VBAs).

We expected up to 80 VBAs to turn up for the week, however 170 VBA’s from the main and surrounding islands arrived and registered for the workshop. The attendees were all supported and encouraged by their families to take the week off from their usual village duties, and participated in the workshop with great gusto! Many of the attendees came from quite remote areas, and the infants school close by was closed for the week to provide much needed accommodation for them. Caring for Kiriwina also contributed towards food and refreshments for the attendees to help support such a large group.

The CFK VBA Training Team: Mid-wives Shea Caplice, Jacqui Andrews, Doug Lawton, Vanessa Palfreeman, Mary Jonmundsson, Jenni and Jodi Lawton

Congratulations to our amazing midwife educators

Great credit is due to the midwife educators Shea Caplice and Jacqui Andrews, who prepared and delivered the training with much professionalism and love. It also cannot be understated how difficult it can be for dim dims to be dropped into the thick of a densely populated Kiriwinan village, to hit the ground running, deliver the short and intense program, and at the same time deal with such different cultural and environmental issues. The group were utterly exhausted by the time they stumbled out of the plane in Sydney!

Shea’s post on Instagram seems to sum up their sentiments:
“I have put photos on Instagram and people think we have been in “paradise”. Ha well we know what we know now. We did extremely well and I really feel what we taught does not undermine parallels in the national strategy in fact we were onto it with reinforcing safe community care in a remote rural area and encouraging ongoing grassroots women’s groups in the respective communities. Two majorly effective strategies in reducing perinatal deaths so in short “we done good” and Jacqui and I could not have done it without the back up. I have felt completely exhausted and recovery seems slow but improving each day."

Shea Caplice, midwife educator.

Help save the lives of the women and children on Kiriwina

The women voiced their desperation for more knowledge and training, and currently feel very isolated and forgotten. We benefited immensely from our association with the Lawton family’s previous work on Kiriwina, and because of that association and our ongoing friendship with the Kiriwinans we were provided with incredible Trobriand hospitality and energy to provide this essential service to the wonderful women who are the Kiriwinan Village Birth Attendants.

Our on-going commitment to the women and children on Kiriwina

ABOUT OUR ONGOING VBA TRAINING PROGRAM

Much planning went into this project. The trip was fully funded through donations including those gratefully received from our donors, without which this would not have been possible. This valuable trip has highlighted the growing need for this work on Kiriwina and surrounding islands. While we will soon be meeting to evaluate the recent project and work out what’s next, Caring for Kiriwina continues to raise funds for the ongoing supply, delivery of birthing kits and continued training.

Thanks again to all our donors for your ongoing support!