PNG Haus Bung

https://pnghausbung.com/divine-word-uni-confirms-over-20-positive-covid-19-cases/

Published on April 21, 2021

DIVINE WORD UNI CONFIRMS OVER 20 POSITIVE COVID-19 CASES

Divine Word University (DWU) in Madang province has revealed that more than 20 of their students and staff have tested positive to COVID-19. University President Fr. Philipp Gibbs said most of these students are from outside provinces studying under the University’s Flexible Learning programme. “There are few regular students and some staff but most of them are Flexible Learning students who are coming from other provinces for two weeks and then they go back.” Fr Gibbs says the challenge they are faced with it is with students who are travelling in from other provinces who are not getting tested for COVID-19 and getting clearance before travel. He said they have instructed students to do testing and get clearance before travelling, however they are also having difficulties accessing facilities that provide testing in their own provinces. “Majority of the students are saying that they can’t get tested in their provinces because they don’t have a facility in the provinces they are coming from.” Fr Gibbs said the travelling students have asked the University for a designated area where they can get tested before going into campus given the situation in their home provinces. “We have a system on campus where we check students with COVID-19 symptoms and we ask them to go into quarantine.” He added that right now the checks are done based on Symptoms only at the campus however it would be more helpful if Rapid Testing was also done at the campus. “What I’m hoping is that we can get the Rapid Test so that those students who are not able to test in the provinces can still do the test here which won’t take long.” “If they test positive then, we can put them into isolation facility at the University.” Fr Gibbs said it has been difficult dealing with people travelling in from other provinces but they were able to do testing with some of them and they tested positive to COVID-19. He said those students in isolation can still access internet and still attend classes via zoom. Meanwhile the University has made some changes with regards to how students should attend classes while adhering to social distancing and other COVID-19 safety protocols. “We have made some changes so we can have more social distancing.” “The classes have been divided into two so we you only got half the number in class and the other half comes later.” Fr Gibbs stressed again that it is mandatory that all students must wear mask at all times. He said classes are still continuing with most of the classes going online and the staff are also conducting meetings via zoom to avoid contact. At this time, it is understood that the Madang Provincial Hospital is the only facility conducting COVID-19 testing in the province while the Divine Word University is starting off slowly with Rapid Testing for students only at the campus. Picture Source: Free-Apply.com

Published on April 21, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/ruth-uses-creativity-to-survive-in-the-city/

Published on April 21, 2021

RUTH USES CREATIVITY TO SURVIVE IN THE CITY

In order to survive and make ends meet, you can turn your talents, your imagination and your creativity into good use. That is what 40 year old mother of two Ruth Kassam is doing. She sells crafted earrings just to help support her two children and most importantly to sustain life everyday with what she like being called a ‘Wokabaut Market’. Ruth Kassam who comes from the Foina Village in the Asaro District of Goroka, Eastern Highlands province said that the usual places that she go about to sell her earrings are at 4Mile, Islander and at Waigani as these are the places where most of her earrings are being sold. “I am a mother of two who struggles very hard here in the big city just to survive and because I have children, I have obligations and that is why I am selling earrings and that is how I usually survive daily." Her son is currently in school in the village whilst her elder daughter is working in one of the shops here in the city. Ruth resides at the first block at ATS and early in the morning she leaves home and can usually be seen walking around and selling her earrings at convenient locations. She has a lot of customers and she even gets orders from some of her faithful customers upon requests. Ruth explained that she has all the necessary tools to make all her earrings. The tool that she usually uses are pliers which is her main tool and a hole puncher which is what she likes to call which makes holes into hard accessories or pieces. “It usually takes approximately 3-4 days to weave and make all these earrings and I usually sell around 20 – 30 earrings daily and at the end of the day, what income I receive from my sales is what helps provide for my family and I." Ruth sells her Bagi’s and shell earrings for K20, the coiled wool earrings are going for K10 for the large ones and K5 for the small ones. When asked about any problems or challenges that she has faced so far, Ruth laughed and said that the only problem right now that she has is the fact that she is tired of the backaches and all the joint aches from sitting down for hours weaving and threading. “But what else can I say as this is the only way that is currently helping me to survive here in the city." "I am not in the village where I can make gardens and eat from what I am growing." She further added that she usually takes a day or two off just to ease the aches before she continues making more earrings. Using her creativity, she plans on adventuring and exploring more of her talent and what she can do and her main goal right now for the future is to establish an SME business using the skills she has. She plans on setting up a stall somewhere convenient later on to sell her earrings and also she said that she has been selling baskets and bilums that she gets all the way from Wewak in East Sepik Province. Interested customers can call Ruth on +675 70172214 to place orders.

Published on April 21, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/sme/

Published on April 21, 2021

Small and Medium Enterprises

Published on April 21, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/kaputin-looks-to-get-back-on-track/

Published on April 21, 2021

KAPUTIN LOOKS TO GET BACK ON TRACK

Tokyo Olympic Hopeful Rellie Kaputin was in action last weekend at the Australian National Championships in Sydney. A season's best jump of 6.25m in Friday’s qualifying round which ranked her third in the field of 16 athletes raised hopes of a bigger jump in Sundays final, especially since her foot was well behind the board on take-off for that particular jump. However despite jumping in excess of 6.00m on all six attempts for the second time in her career, Kaputin was not able to improve on her seasons best and again recorded a best effort of 6.25m. Whilst things didn’t go as planned, this is still a huge performance coming back from the injury that towards the end of 2019 seemed to have derailed her Olympic hopes. ”I’m prepared to pour all my heart and soul into this in the two months remaining and get some big jumps in the Oceania competitions in June." “I’m confident of jumping well over 6.50m." 'I’m running and jumping well and just need to put it together on the day." Based on the World Athletics Road to Tokyo Ranking, Kaputin is currently ranked 53 and her aim is to still be in the top 60 by the end of the qualifying period. Meanwhile PNG sprint queen Toea Wisil is planning to leave PNG this week for the USA where she will take part in a number of competitions with the aim to boost her own world ranking and earn selection for the one spot that is available to PNG under the Universality Rule.

Published on April 21, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/by-u-s-ambassador-to-papua-new-guinea-solomon-islands-and-vanuatu-erin-elizabeth-mckee/

Published on April 20, 2021

TO STOP COVID-19: TAKE THE VACCINE

Over the past few months, COVID-19 has spiked in Papua New Guinea. The number of cases likely will reach 10,000 this week and nearly 100 people here have died from the disease. Last week, Papua New Guinea received 132,000 doses of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine thanks to Gavi, the international vaccine alliance. This delivery is only the first of many and is a critical step to stopping COVID-19 in PNG. This pandemic will not end until it ends worldwide. We must all do our part to stop it. And that means getting vaccinated. Unfortunately, misinformation spread via social media and word of mouth has led many Papua New Guineans to believe things that are untrue about the vaccines and many people have said they won’t get vaccinated. But here is the simple truth: Vaccines work. Just as an athlete practices to prepare for a big game, COVID-19 vaccines teach our immune systems how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19. It typically takes two weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means it is possible a person could still get COVID-19 before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection. That’s why it’s important that we continue to wear masks, wash our hands regularly, and maintain physical distance from others while we are getting everyone vaccinated. According to data from UNICEF, vaccines save more than 5 lives every minute, helping people to grow up and grow old in good health. Thanks to vaccines, more than 18 million people – who would otherwise have been paralyzed by polio – are able to walk, play, and dance today. Vaccinated children do better at school and their communities benefit economically. Vaccines advance global welfare and are among the most cost-effective means of doing so. To date, nearly 900 million people around the world have received a COVID-19 vaccine. The United States is committed to leading the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating global vaccine distribution. as the U.S. is the world’s single largest donor through Gavi to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which pools global demand and funding to help low- and middle-income economies access safe and effective vaccines. To keep people safe, build back the global economy, and curb the emergence of variants, we must work together to end the pandemic. All countries, regardless of income status, need vaccines that meet rigorous standards for safety and effectiveness. Among the vaccines that meet international standards are those made by Astra-Zeneca, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson. Astra-Zeneca is currently the only vaccine currently approved for use in PNG, but we are working with the government to expand the number of approved vaccines in order to accelerate the vaccination process here. But we cannot advance our protection of Papua New Guineans and begin to put an end to COVID-19 unless everyone gets vaccinated. I urge the citizens of Papua New Guinea to step up, as we have in the United States and around the world, to get vaccinated. In doing so you are helping stop a global pandemic – you are protecting yourself, your family, and your Wantok. Photo caption: Ambassador McKee received the COVID-19 vaccine on 20 April. Photo caption: Prime Minister James Marape received the COVID-19 vaccine last month.

Published on April 20, 2021

https://pnghausbung.com/pomgen-emergency-dept-full/

Published on April 20, 2021

POMGEN EMERGENCY DEPT FULL

All 11 beds at the Emergency Room at the Port Moresby General Hospital are fully occupied with patients, including the Hospital's Isolation ward. The Isolation Ward has a capacity of 18 beds and right now are fully occupied with Covid19 patients. That is according to the PMGH CEO Dr. Paki Molumi. Dr Molumi said they have increased the capacity of the Hospital's Ward 1B with an additional 15 beds to cater for the emergency cases. “Ward 1B can cater for 16 patients only but we have decided to extend with 15 more beds to make room for the cases that came in on Monday.” These patients have tested positive to Covid-19 and have serious underlying issues therefore they must be admitted at the hospital and cannot be sent over to the Tarauma Aquatic Center. “Mild cases of Covid-19 we treat at the Emergency Ward are referred to the Taurama Aquatic Centre however for the more serious cases, we keep them at the Isolation Ward." “We do this so that we can manage and monitor the more serious cases here at the Hospital.” Dr. Molumi further thanked the Government for the recent opening of the Nightingale Centre at the Taurama Aquatic Centre.

Published on April 20, 2021