A PLACE BUILT OF UNITY…

Aseki Market, Menyamaya, Morobe Province

Rusted Bed in Aseki on which women give birth

The thing that I learnt from my travel to Menyamya is… “The power of unity saves a community from ruins”.

In a small community like the stations, you would need to believe in each other and lean on each other’s shoulder.

Many will say that this isn’t new for a small community. But what’s unique about Menyamya is, its people have been maintaining a standard of living through struggles.

They had been struggling with poor roads for over ten years until quite recently.   

The people have been survivors through out their existence; they had once survived droughts and feminine.  

They were once fierce warriors’ and very generous people. To this date they still are both generous and critical. Peace is their virtue.

They have lived in their ragged and beautiful terrain for many years… It’s the type of place to wake up to in the morning with a cup of coffee and then read a good book all day.

The station itself used to be a well-organized government station in Morobe Province.

It was where most graduates out from Public Administration School aimed to work.  A lot has changed since than and the station is in vast contrast to before.

“Back than it had the flamboyance and appeal,” says Sam William (Not his real name) who is now around 30 years old and spent his young life in Menyamya.

“A few things have happened for Menyamya and some things have not happened for it- I know because I have seen it with my own eyes”.

The things that haven’t been happening are the Menyamya Health Center at the station and the Health Center in Aseki.

I went to visit the Menyamya health Center on a Monday and what I saw was a concern to me. It wasn’t open- maybe there was no patient, but when I asked the locals, they say it hardly opened.

They said that patients chose not to come to the center because the Officer in Charges wife collapsed and died inside one of the wards.

I guess Papua New Guinean superstition plays a big role… we shouldn’t go to the hospital for treatment because there are spirits.

But the sad thing is… while some are superstitious and don’t want to come go for treatment others still do.

Often there is no Health Worker at work to attend to their illness.

The ward councilor Susan Mai has raised concerns about the center having its own specialist doctor and more staff because it the on center that services four parts of Menyamya.

“ We have to have a doctor here because we go looking for treatment in Lae and many have died at the outpatient, so we have to bring them back and bury them,” she said.

In Aseki several kilometers from Menyamya station, the story there is even worse. The health center really showed signs of neglect.

Beds were just rusted metal. A bed on which women give birth to their baby is so rusted the Health workers had to support it with rocks and repair it themselves.

They say that women actually fall off the beds when in the process of giving birth. The bed had been there since the hospital was built in the colonial era.

The Menyamya MP Benjamin Philip admitted that he hadn’t put enough money aside to fix the Health Center because he had made roads the priority.

But he has made it known to the people that districts funds will be allocated to fix the poor health care facilities in Menyamya.

The fixed 24-kilometer stretch of the worst roads will help.

Menyamya like many other rural stations must be maintained to a level that it should be. For better service delivery for tens of thousands of people in the area.