Missions and Ministry
Anguganak Healthy Motherhood 2025
The Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Program has been organised by Hervey Bay Baptist Church (HBBC) midwives Debbie Butters and Kym Robinson since 2015. We have now taken 10 small teams to PNG focusing on improving outcomes for mothers and babies in a remote region of West Sepik. Seven members of HBBC have been part of our teams and travelled with us to Anguganak.
Our main strategy has been providing safe motherhood workshops for village birth attendants (VBAs) and training sessions to enhance the health workers’ skills. A total of 201 individual VBAs and 38 health workers have received training. Over the last 10 years we have had a total of 588 participants at our training courses. Many VBAs rebook at every opportunity as they are hungry to learn; they love increasing their skills and being part of the Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Program.
Every year we create and purchase items to go in the new mother’s gift bag to encourage village mothers to seek health centre births instead of continuing the tradition of staying in the village to give birth where the risks are much higher. We also provide resources for the VBAs and health workers including birth kits and resus equipment.
Another strategy has been to help the health care centre at Anguganak become more inviting for the women so that staff can offer a higher standard of care. Through our support, the health centre and 4 of their aid posts now have reliable water supplies. We are currently helping provide funds so that local Anguganak teams can renovate one of the wards to become a maternity ward and mothers waiting house. This will give the women a safe, private place they can stay before and after giving birth as many women must walk for hours to seek care. The men that join us often have practical skills and have fixed the large generator, installed solar and helped with general maintenance.
Here at HBBC, we also run a branch of Days for Girls (DfG), a global charity that creates a sustainable, washable solution for girls so that periods are never a problem. This blends well with our safe motherhood program, educating girls and women about their bodies and equipping them with Days for Girls kits made here at HBBC. 15-20 women meet on the second Wednesday of each month to sew and pack kits, and our team has now made 6000 kits. We have taken over 2240 kits to PNG, most of these given to the school girls or new mothers. We visit the schools and provide health education sessions as part of the DfG distribution and have equipped local teachers and VBAs with training and flip charts to continue the distributions throughout the year.
2025 has had some challenges for us as 3 of our regular team members were not available for our anticipated PNG trip, and then our second choice of dates clashed with the 50th year anniversary of PNG independence. We have been in discussions as to whether we physically go to Anguganak this year or concentrate on supporting the maternity ward build with further donations, send over more DfG kits and postpone our training workshops until 2026. In November 5, members of Hervey Bay DfG group will be attending the DfG conference in Fiji. I will be presenting one of the sessions about DfG and the Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Project. Our luggage will be laden with kits for Fiji distributions as, away from the resorts, many women and girls in the villages are poor and struggle with finding an affordable, reliable solution for their periods just like the girls in PNG do.
We value the support and prayers of our church family as we continue to serve others in practical ways that match our skills and interests. For more stories and photos check out Health Serve Australia.org, Send Hope Not Flower’s Facebook page and our Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Facebook page.
Sincerely Debbie Butters
Our main strategy has been providing safe motherhood workshops for village birth attendants (VBAs) and training sessions to enhance the health workers’ skills. A total of 201 individual VBAs and 38 health workers have received training. Over the last 10 years we have had a total of 588 participants at our training courses. Many VBAs rebook at every opportunity as they are hungry to learn; they love increasing their skills and being part of the Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Program.
Every year we create and purchase items to go in the new mother’s gift bag to encourage village mothers to seek health centre births instead of continuing the tradition of staying in the village to give birth where the risks are much higher. We also provide resources for the VBAs and health workers including birth kits and resus equipment.
Another strategy has been to help the health care centre at Anguganak become more inviting for the women so that staff can offer a higher standard of care. Through our support, the health centre and 4 of their aid posts now have reliable water supplies. We are currently helping provide funds so that local Anguganak teams can renovate one of the wards to become a maternity ward and mothers waiting house. This will give the women a safe, private place they can stay before and after giving birth as many women must walk for hours to seek care. The men that join us often have practical skills and have fixed the large generator, installed solar and helped with general maintenance.
Here at HBBC, we also run a branch of Days for Girls (DfG), a global charity that creates a sustainable, washable solution for girls so that periods are never a problem. This blends well with our safe motherhood program, educating girls and women about their bodies and equipping them with Days for Girls kits made here at HBBC. 15-20 women meet on the second Wednesday of each month to sew and pack kits, and our team has now made 6000 kits. We have taken over 2240 kits to PNG, most of these given to the school girls or new mothers. We visit the schools and provide health education sessions as part of the DfG distribution and have equipped local teachers and VBAs with training and flip charts to continue the distributions throughout the year.
2025 has had some challenges for us as 3 of our regular team members were not available for our anticipated PNG trip, and then our second choice of dates clashed with the 50th year anniversary of PNG independence. We have been in discussions as to whether we physically go to Anguganak this year or concentrate on supporting the maternity ward build with further donations, send over more DfG kits and postpone our training workshops until 2026. In November 5, members of Hervey Bay DfG group will be attending the DfG conference in Fiji. I will be presenting one of the sessions about DfG and the Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Project. Our luggage will be laden with kits for Fiji distributions as, away from the resorts, many women and girls in the villages are poor and struggle with finding an affordable, reliable solution for their periods just like the girls in PNG do.
We value the support and prayers of our church family as we continue to serve others in practical ways that match our skills and interests. For more stories and photos check out Health Serve Australia.org, Send Hope Not Flower’s Facebook page and our Anguganak Healthy Motherhood Facebook page.
Sincerely Debbie Butters
Posted in Missions & Ministry