PM commissions health training centre in Mabaruma

Prime Minister Mark Phillips on Tuesday commissioned the Regional Health Training Centre for Barima-Waini (Region One).

This is the first time that the region will have such a facility, a release from the Prime Minister’s office said.

The building, which is located in central Mabaruma, is equipped with two furnished classrooms, including one smart classroom, an administrative office space, air conditioning and a furnished sitting area.

The release said that the first batch of 58 prospective community health workers will spend the next 14 weeks training at the facility before returning to their respective communities in the region.

At the opening ceremony, Phillips told the trainees “You have a role to impart knowledge and place your community on a path to good health practices. If you are successful in this, it will mean that there will be less work for the doctors, because everybody will be moving towards practicing good health measures, which is a form of preventative medicine and that itself is a success story for a programme like this”.

Trainee, Rihanna Thomas of Wanaina Village, said that she is pleased that the training opportunity has come to her region.

“I got involved in the training because this is what I love and having a training centre here will ease a lot of expenses for me, because if I were to be further away from home and my family, I would have to spend more money”.

Another trainee, Timaul Ruffino of Morawhanna Village, said that after leaving school, he had several jobs, but his passion was always health care.

“When I left high school, I was in a number of jobs and I kept leaving them because I never found it interesting, I was doing it because of the money and it is a great pleasure for this programme to be introduced into the region because it is a great development for our health sector”.