Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Hydroelectric Power

We use to power our station and hospital with power generated from our hydroelectric plant. Last year we had a large rain and the force of the water washed out various parts of the hydro dam; our turbine, also sustained damage, making the whole thing nonfunctional. As a result, we have had to buy our electricity from the government. The government's power, is not only unreliable, but is also very poor quality, and fluctuates all the time. As a result of the fluctuations in power, we have lost pieces of medical equipment, are damaging others that we need to keep using, and finding our lab equipment is becoming very unreliable. We also are without power for periods of time when the government power is out and the generator doesn't kick on. Maintenance is responsible to keep the generator going, but they aren't always around at 0200, so if the doctor needs power right then, they may try and turn it on themselves, in an effort to save patient's lives. Just last week, Becky and I were doing a Csection and the power went out. (the picture below on the R is me doing a csection with a headlamp as the power is out, waiting for the generator to come on) When the generator didn't kick on, and we couldn't get a hold of the maintenance people, I tried to start the generator, but that too proved unsuccessful. Finally, about 10 minutes later, the power returned and we were able to finish the case, thankfully both mom and baby did well, but we easily could have had a different result. We desperately need our hydroelectric plant back up and working. This will enable us to have a continuous supply of power, a reliable power source that doesn't fluctuate and damage our medical equipment, and will save the hospital money. Unfortunately, to do this, we need to raise the money to fix it, about $1.2 million. This is a collective effort. We have folks at World Medical Mission/Samaritan's Purse working with us to help us get the parts we need. We have a company in Canada who is helping to rebuild part of our plant. We have Mike and his crew working on getting things ready for when we have all the pieces and money we need to rebuild it. But, we need folks to help us fund this. Bill has written a proposal and submitted it to various agencies in PNG and Australia who may help to support our efforts. We don't just want to rely on them, and thus are raising awareness for our project. Any amount whether, $1 or $50 or $500 or $1000 would help to make this project possible. If you would like to help, or know someone who would, you can learn more at http://www.ncm.org/projects/acm1417 .