Honiara: 18 February 2018
Letter to the Editors, Solomon Star and Island Sun newspapers.
RURAL HEALTH CARE OF PREGNANT WOMEN, MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
More than three years ago World Vision in the Solomon Islands reported that the country’s nurse aid posts and rural health clinics chronically lacked essential equipment and medicine to save mothers and children’s lives
As one reads more and more of the dilapidated and run down state of the county’s rural health clinics I begin to wonder how much more are pregnant women and mothers and children seeking medical assistance in the rural communities scattered across the country getting the help they need from humanitarian organizations in the Solomon Islands like World Vision?
The maternal mortality rate in the Solomon Islands was quoted by World Vision as 100 deaths per 100,000, compared with 1 in 4, 4700 in more wealthy countries.
It was known World Vision was previously working with communities to establish Village Health Volunteers who could assist pregnant women as they prepared to give birth safely and also educate them about maternal and child health issues.
I would hope that Village Health Volunteers trained by World Vision are still able to provide health advice to families and also available to encourage pregnant women to do antenatal check-ups and to prepare for the delivery of their babies.
Perhaps World Vision could comment on the work currently being done to aid pregnant women, mothers and children given what is currently known about the continuing reports of abandoned rural health clinics and in the light of the fact that the Prime Minister had vowed to give priority to rural health clinic problems on assuming office.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
