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Papua New Guinea: World Vision gears up for World TB Day |
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Urgent issues
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In the leadup to World TB Day on March 24, World Vision and partners conducted a whirlwind tour of schools throughout Papua New Guinea to raise TB awareness.
One school visited was Pari Primary School in the National Capital District, where World Vision staff and health representatives spoke to about 400 assembled school children.
The children were also given posters and pamphlets to take home on what tuberculosis is and how it is spread.
Many children, as well as some of the teachers, knew almost nothing about the disease..
David Waime from the National Capital District Provincial Health Centre took the lead in answering questions and explaining more about TB and how the disease was affecting Papua New Guineans.
The main attraction of the event was the TB Dots project's mascot named 'Dotsy'.' The children went wild with excitement trying to get at least a hug or hand shake from Dotsy as she went around distributing pamphlets, posters and brochures with information about the disease.
World Vision TB Provincial Coordinator Veronica Kekae said the aim of the school awareness is to increase the school children's knowledge as she said it is a major health problem in the country. According to national statistics 14, 000 people die from TB every year and because of this she said it is the country's number one infectious killer.
Junior Kay is a grade 5 pupil at Coronation Community School, another school in the NCD which World Vision visited. He said: "I know about TB but not very much, but today World Vision has helped me to understand the disease better, especially what it is and how it can be spread."
He added that he would relay the message to his family at home so they were also aware of it.
World Vision's TB Project is a nationwide 5 year project launched in 2007, which was implemented initially in the National Capital District and Morobe province and followed by other provinces in the country. Participating partners in the project include: The National Health Department, World Health organization (WHO), Hope World Wide (HWW), City Pharmacy Limited (CPL) Jane Thompson Associates International (JTA), Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) with World Vision.
The TB Dots Project will be implemented at a cost of 21 million USD and is funded by Global Fund.
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