Volunteers Join Fight Against COVID-19 and Boost Maternal Health in North Fly, Western Province

As the COVID-19 crisis places additional strain on existing health facilities, personnel and medicines, urgent and sustained investment in maternal and neonatal health is critical to ensuring health outcomes for mothers do not deteriorate. In Western Province, efforts are underway to fill in some of those gaps. In a country that has one of the worst sexual and reproductive health indicators in the Pacific Region, with 44% of mothers not having a skilled birth attendant during delivery, Western Province is now working to ensure that women have access to correct maternal care information on when and where to seek help when needed.

Using a two-pronged approach, the Western Provincial Government with the support of UNFPA is training village health volunteers to disseminate information in communities while upskilling health care workers to effectively cater to women who seek their assistance.

The funding for this effort comes through the UN COVID-19 Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) through the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, to implement maternal and neonatal health interventions in Western Province as part of a 7-month joint response project.

One of the key interventions is to facilitate regular community dissemination of information by village health volunteers on pregnancy danger signs, COVID-19 infection symptoms and related hygiene messages, family planning, and birth preparedness. These information sessions will be held twice a week and training of these village health volunteers began on July 24th, 2020.

24 Village Health Volunteers joined a three-day training program in Matkomnae, North Fly District, in collaboration with NDOH, the North Fly District Health Office, the Provincial Health Authority and the Catholic Church Health Services.

The training is being led by Dr Titilola Dura-Aina from UNFPA. “The Village Health Volunteer (VHV) Training in North fly District, Western province was an opportunity to build the capacity of those who are closest to the community, to provide support to community members in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to see that no mother or baby suffers as a result of the challenges imposed by the crisis,” she said.

This training provided information on health and hygiene for pregnant women, effective antenatal care, and how to identify high-risks pregnancies and refer mothers to health care providers. For single mother Veronica, the decision to become a village health volunteer was motivated by her experience of her parent’s rejection of her for being a girl-child. “This has made me more determined to help women and the girl-child,” she said. “That is what this training has done for me. It has given me the knowledge with which to help more women in my community and their babies, and to see that no mother or baby dies in my community especially during this period of COVID-19; when more mothers are finding it more difficult to get support and transport to the health facility”.

Volunteers learned about how to recognize and respond to problems during delivery. These volunteers will now share this information with communities in North Fly over the course of several months to strengthen community awareness of maternal and neonatal health.

The information will enable pregnant women and their families to better prepare for a safe birth and to identify potential risks or problems and seek medical help early. Training participant, and new village health volunteer, Robin said “ I feel so happy that during this time, when getting transport to go to the health facility is more difficult, due to the lack of movement, I will be able to play my part in providing good information to our women on how to take care of themselves and their babies.”

The next step in this project is to train more village health volunteers and to conduct training with health workers. Training with health workers will complement the work of the village volunteers, as more women seek support from medical centres following information sessions. These training are also important to ensure the information provided to women by village volunteers is consistent with the information they receive at the health centre. The first training will commence at Rumginae Hospital in late August.

Information on health and hygiene provided by village volunteers is not only important for improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes but for strengthening community resilience to COVID-19. “The response of the VHVs to the training and the reception of Matkomnae community members as the VHVs provided information to them was very enthusiastic,” said Dr Titilola. “It is a clear indication that we can stop the spread of the virus if only we can spread the information required to prevent it,  especially to the farthest behind”

The UN in PNG’s support to communities in North Fly through the COVID-19 Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) was announced in May during the UN Resident Coordinator Gianluca Rampolla’s visit to Kiunga. The Resident Coordinator was joined by IOM’s resident representative Lance Bonneau. IOM is working with communities in North Fly on clean water and sanitation projects.