By Edward Luke
Yesterday marked a double celebration in Kumin, Mendi in Southern Highlands Province, as the Community Health Workers Training School celebrated their 47th graduation alongside the Mendi Diocese 50th Golden Jubilee in collaboration with the Switzerland Sisters.
Community Health Workers Training School students and staff came together with the Switzerland sisters and members of the Mendi Diocese to celebrated this special occasion.
The 47th graduation ceremony symbolized the hard work and dedication of the community health
worker’s students, while the Mendi Diocese’s 50th Golden Jubilee was a testament to decades of services and commitment to the community.
Community Health Worker Training School Principal Dr. Cathy Pilang said the school had trained quality graduates but yet many students were still looking for job.
“We are graduating them year after year coming out and it is sad to see my graduates on the streets and I don’t know who’s going to come and solve this problem because statistics disease has increased.“
She also highlighted the challenges faced by the health sector in the remote communities.
Thousands of our people are in the remote, the majority 87% of them are in the remote area where health is needed but they can’t go because some aid post and health centers are closed, no positions are created, no new recruitments are done and these are some big issues and challenges that we have.” Dr. Pilang said.
Meanwhile, the National Department of Health staff training officer Dr. Julie Kep challenged the Provincial Health Authority and the church agencies on the recent data collection in the workforce process.
Dr. Kep said, “I want to leave with the PHA’s and the church agencies, recently we collected a data to look in to the workforce on how many people who graduated have work and how many are not. From the figures collected, many of the community health workers are not working. Please PHA they are our backbone. You need to employ them to minimize the number of sick people in the hospitals.”
Each student graduated with three certificates which including their community health worker certificate, TB certificate, and the Early Essential Newborn Care certificates.
