Rose, a mother of four, received the full-service treatment during the MV YWAM PNG’s visit to Ako last week, a village that took her two-hours to paddle to from her own village in Oro Province. Stationed in Ako for the day was YWAM Medical Ships’ mobile primary health care, optometry, and community engagement clinics and anchored off Ako’s shore was YWAM’s dentistry clinic on board the MV YWAM PNG. Rose spent her day doing the rounds as she moved from clinic to clinic to get her various ailments seen to.
First stop: the primary health care clinic where Rose presented with a high fever and headaches.
After a rapid diagnostic test from YWAM’s doctor, Rose was diagnosed with malaria. After an education session on how to prevent malaria, Rose was given treatment and a mosquito net for her and her family. She is now well on the road to recovery!
Stop #2: the mother and child health clinic.
Rose got an Implanon implant inserted in her arm; a method of birth-control that will last for up to five years.
Stop #3: the optometry clinic.
Rose had her eyesight tested and was given her first pair of reading glasses!
Final stop: the dental clinic onboard the MV YWAM PNG
where Rose explained that she’d had tooth pain for a number of months. The culprit of Rose’s pain (a rotten tooth) was extracted. While her mouth was stuffed with gauze, the dental team gave her education on oral health and provided her with toothbrushes and toothpaste for her family.
Meanwhile, Rose’s children were ashore in Ako with YWAM’s community engagement team receiving health promotion on hygiene, malaria and tuberculosis.
After a day of moving from clinic to clinic, YWAM Medical Ships’ volunteer, Haeley Dyrdahl, asked Rose about her story and what the MV YWAM PNG’s visit meant to her. Haeley soon found out that Rose was due to return to trade school in Oro Bay at the end of the month, but was questioning whether she could go because of her fevers, tooth pain, and eyesight.
Rose began to tear up and shared, “Sister, I feel like a brand-new Rose! Today each of my prayers were answered. My friends, I have been given a better life today, I will get to follow my dreams again,” said Rose. Rose journeyed home with her new smile, pair of glasses, malaria medication, mosquito net, toothbrush and toothpaste, and five-years of birth-control. Rose hugged Haeley as she left the ship and said, “I will never, ever forget this day. Thank you.”
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