Physical Health Palau Project #54560

Health Screening Ship to Remote Islands in Palau

by Peace Winds America

Project Report | Jul 27, 2022
A Successful End to Project Year One

By Sarah Maraschky | Communications Associate

Peace Winds staff members in Palau

As the first year of the Peace Winds health screening ship project in Palau comes to a close, our teams are busy working with Palau’s Ministry of Health and Human Services to review the accomplishments of the past year of the program.

Early in July, the Peace Winds Palau Office held a meeting with the Ministry of Health and Human Services and Belau National Hospital staff. The goal of the meeting was to provide a summary of data and feedback for the health screening demonstration run with our Kenshin ship fitted with health screening equipment that took place in January 2022. Our medical doctor presented findings from the demonstration which indicated that many participants were aware of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) but still need more awareness activities to remind them of the importance of periodic health screening for healthier, NCD-free lifestyles.

The Peace Winds Palau team held a successful first year of health screenings, aiming to decrease incidents of NCDs in Palau, with many citizens of the rural islands ready to climb aboard the Kenshin ship to be screened. We are looking forward to more successful screening demonstrations like this as the second year of the program begins later in 2022.

In addition to providing health screenings for Palauans who don’t normally have access to quality healthcare, Peace Winds employees are working hard to disseminate NCD-related health information to Palau people. By helping them take better care of their own health, we aim to cut down on the number of NCDs that are so common in Palau.

Thank you so much for supporting this project so far, and we look forward to bringing more updates in the second year of the program!

View from a Peace Winds staff meeting in Palau

Peace Winds staff and Palau Rotary Club members

The Kenshin (health screening) Ship

Links:

Permalink

Mar 9, 2022
Palau Health Screenings Are off to a Great Start

By Sarah Maraschky | Communications Associate

The Kenshin Hospital Ship

About a month ago, Peace Winds held the first health screening demonstrations in Peleliu and Angaur, two of Palau’s hundreds of islands. Members of the Peace Winds team as well as of Palau’s Ministry of Health and Human Services (MHHS) attended, and participants were excited to go aboard the Kenshin ship for the first time.

A third demonstration was scheduled for the island of Kayangel, but inclement weather forced the cancellation of the trip. While unpredictable weather has proven to be one of the challenges of the project, the Peace Winds team has been working hard to get around the delays by meeting with partners to discuss what strategies have been successful so far.

With the onset of the omicron variant, a surge of COVID-19 in Palau over the past few months meant that the Peace Winds team was extremely busy with patients seeking COVID testing. Fortunately, cases are now on the decline, and regulations around travel and vaccinations are helping to protect the small island nation.

Despite the challenges, Peace Winds is happy to report that the Kenshin hospital ship project is off to a great start! We have been working with local health centers to coordinate outreach to Palau’s states and community members, and thanks to smooth collaboration with state governments, the team had plenty of people waiting for health screenings when they arrived at the docks. Palauans are excited to go aboard the ship and receive their health screenings, and the project is even proving to be an educational opportunity for the locals to learn more about how to better take care of their health.

Palauan receiving health information

Palauan receiving health screening

Peace Winds Palau team

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.