Madan Medical Clinic – Papua, New Guinea

Home / Projects / Madan Medical Clinic – Papua, New Guinea
  • Dr. Larry Hull Tribute. Photo courtesy of CTC

  • Dr. Larry Hull was instrumental in establishing health clinics in Papua New Guinea. His dedication inspires us to continue his work. Photo courtesy of CTC.

  • Smart Village and Rotary International are working together to improve the lives of children in PNG. Photo courtesy of Rotary

  • A rooftop solar array on a health clinic in Papua New Guinea. Photo courtesy of CTC.

  • Students at one of the schools that will enjoy the transformation benefits derived from solar power.


The Madan Community is the center of a capacity building program by Madan CTC and Transform International to provide access to electricity, intranet, education, safe water, proper sanitation, and community empowerment programs throughout Jiwaka and Western Highlands provinces. Within the initial 10km project radius, there are seven tribes with an estimated 44,000 people and 35 schools with an average of 275 students each. This program covers a wide range of UN Sustainable Development Goal advancement with project components directly addressing community-wide healthcare, education, gender equality, water / sanitation, energy, infrastructure, fair employment, and sustainable economic growth opportunities.

BACKGROUND

Located just 300 kilometers north of Australia, Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse countries in the world with 8.2 million people and 840 languages. Currently, 40% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, 68% lacks clean water or sanitation, 90% of residents have no reliable electricity, 97% lacks internet access, and the infant and child mortality rate is the highest in the Pacific.

The Madan Medical Clinic and Birthing Center (which serves more than 10,000 patient visits and 5000 vaccinations a year) is completely off-grid and only has a very small amount of photovoltaic generation capacity installed. However, this is insufficient for many of the critical medical services that are provided by the clinic. The majority of schools lack critical resources including safe drinking water, electricity, proper sanitation, desks, books, teaching supplies, or access to the government curriculum.

ELECTRIFICATION

Initial work will focus on construction of a series of demonstration systems using a combination of containerized AC microgrids, portable battery kits, and standalone solar classrooms, reaching an initial population of 4,000 people.

EDUCATION

Microgrids at each of the 35 schools will power LED lights and digital classroom tools including a computer, projector, intranet router, and printer – thereby allowing teachers to show interactive media, participate in learning forums between schools, and create their own WordPress websites with content accessible by the entire community. Teachers will also be able to attend recurrence training and classes to improve their proficiency in English, STEM, and motivation/mentoring of students. All schools will be provided access to the government curriculum and supplemented education resources through a digital content library hosted on the local intranet.

LEVERAGING

This project builds upon 15 years of community capacity building work by the members of the Madan CTC. It also advances the success of a Rotary Int’l program started in 2013 that has provided a million liters of safe drinking water a year and adequate sanitation to 5000 people in the community, as well as three new community centers that function as hubs for ongoing adult literacy, vocational training, women’s empowerment, and domestic violence prevention workshops.

IEEE Smart Village is enabling the program to expand beyond the Madan community to reach up to a million people throughout the highlands of PNG, with over $1 million of cash and consulting raised to date. It is also establishing a basis for joint projects with Rotary districts, outlined in a new draft protocol for program collaboration.

TEAM

The local team is led by Matthew Galman, Chair of CTC INC, Community Development Director & President of the Mt Hagen Rotary Club; and Maurine Yalde, Vice Chair for Education and Financial Management. Isaac Yalde, manager of the Madan Coffee Plantation and liaison with tribal leaders and the Mt Hagen Rotary Club, provides community oversight.

Additional project oversight is provided by Aarlie Hull, one of the founders of the Madan Medical Clinic and Highlands Ariabicas Ltd, a social business providing fair employment to over 800 residents of the Madan Community. Professional support in system design, project management,and financial overview includes Bob Wubbena, PNG Program Manager, Andy Greatwood, civil engineer and site manager, and both Barbara Greatwood and Lance Fletcher, financial managers and coordinators with the Rotary WASH program. Installation, operations, and maintenance is provided by Peter Yakos, a local engineer with additional pro-bono consulting from other volunteers.

In the early 2000’s, Dr Larry and Aarlie Hull, medical missionaries to the Madan area of PNG, recognized that medical services only marginally helped the larger community to deal with the causes of poverty. The Hull’s used personal funds to purchase and expand a coffee Coop and Plantation where the local coffee farmers could jointly process and sell their coffee directly to international coffee buyers, including Starbucks. They built a health clinic and dug eight wells to provide clean water. But the challenge was bigger than themselves and the surrounding PNG community. Dr. Hull was instrumental in bringing in the Rotary Foundation and ISV to assist in PNG community development. His vision will live on as the work he and his wife started will continue.

IMPACT ON UN SDGs

For the Madan Medical Clinic, which every year accommodates 10,000 patient visits, provides 5,000 vaccinations, and delivers hundreds of healthy babies, the ISV project means saving lives through newly-possible nighttime emergency care, electric medical tools, vaccine refrigeration, and a remote diagnostics video link to the regional Nazarene hospital.

Community centers will offer similar services, as well as pre-paid cellular phone charging and home electrification through portable battery kits. The centers will also serve as hubs as entrepreneurial and vocational training in a broad array of disciplines and job areas. Entrepreneurial mentors, virtual instructors, and community center facilitators will help train new entrepreneurs in creating businesses that are holistically sustainable and help advance the UN SDGs.

Technical Specifications & Resources

Specifications  Details
Location Madan area, Jiwaka Province,  Papua New Guinea
GPS Est. Latitude: -5.810748, Longitude: 144.404788
Power of Generation Capacity (18) 750W, (3) 2.5kW and (1) 25kW
Number of Beneficiaries 4,000 direct
Project Start November 2017
Year Started
2017
Technology
Portable Battery Kit, SunBlazer II, PhotoVoltaic Systems, Solar Panel Control Systems
Villages
Madan area, Jiwaka Province, Papua New Guinea