Honiara : 22 January 2018
Letter to the Editor, Island Sun newspaper.
BUSURATA SELF-HELP ENTERPRISE HIGHLY PRAISWORTHY
Due to the inspiring efforts of John Sala and the village people at Busurata the community now has its own Area Health Centre.
The full story behind this remarkable story was featured in an article in the Solomon Star newspaper on 22 January 2018 from which I quote.
“Basic services like clinics, markets, and schools are what people in the rural areas need the most.
“Any community that has got those services at their disposal should be enough for them to move on with their life.
“One such community is Busurata, located 14 kilometres from the Malaita provincial capital Auki, up in the highlands of central Kwara’ae.
“It has its own clinic, school and market to serve its people and the surrounding communities.
“Its clinic, which was recently upgraded to the status of Area Health Centre, is serving its purpose well.
“John Sala, the villager who was behind the idea to build the clinic there, said the facility was established in the 1980s.
“The idea of building a clinic here came after witnessing with my own eyes how women of this place struggled to go to Kilu’ufi Hospital to deliver,” Mr Sala explained.
“During those times, the condition of the road was really bad and women like that had to walk down to Kilu’ufi, which is very dangerous,” Mr Sala said.
“He added few years later when he was elected to be a ward member for ward 29, he pushed forward the idea to build a clinic for the community.
“The idea came into fruition and today, Busurata has its own health facility.
“Mr Sala said health service is important for people.
“After we have completed it, we actually addressed the issue that our women have struggled with for many years.
“Women giving birth can just do it at our clinic. Only cases that were complicated get referred to Kilu’ufi Hospital.”
“Busurata clinic has one labour ward to accommodate women during times of deliveries.
“Mr Sala said, “Currently we are working on a new clinic building to meet the demand of the local population of this place.”
“He said that the old building does not have enough space and therefore they are working on a new building to accommodate the needs of the increasing population.
“Mr Sala thanked the people of the community for working together to build that new building.
“The money we used to build this building comes from hands of people through fundraisings and their contributions,” he said.”
I offer to Mr Sala and the Busurata community my congratulations on the outstanding self-help effort in establishing a health facility and providing for the basic health care needs of the local people. Well done!
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
