(Mendi,SHP)
The Community Health Worker Training School (CHWTS) in Mendi hosted its 47th graduation ceremony on Sunday 29th September 2024.
The ceremony took place at the Kumin Catholic Mission Station in Mendi, Southern Highlands Province on the 50th Golden Jubilee eve.
CHWTS was founded by the late Sister Gaudentia Meier who moved into Papua New Guinea in 1969 from Switzerland.
Sr. Gaudentia came to Papua New Guinea as a certified practising accountant but pursued a career in the nursing field from general nursing knowledge, serving the entire Southern Highlands, including the five districts which was later separated upon Hela Province’s birth.
Current principal of the school Mrs. Cathy Pilang was one of their pioneering students who grew her career under their mentorship and training.
These sisters did imparted blessings to advance and embrace the high standard of administrative duty to move the school forward with strict accountability, transparency, and strict management ethics.
Since then, the Community Health Worker Training School (CHWTS) has been a communal support institution that has produced health practitioners who are then deployed to the rural vicinities in Papua New Guinea to serve and support in the health sector.
The Principal during her remarks at the graduation ceremony stressed about the mass production of graduates annually, but expressed disappointments on the scarcity of jobs, which left many unattached and are still at home.
“From our tonnes of graduates annually, many are still unemployed, but the solution to this problem lies anonymously.”
However, National Department of Health Staff Training Officer Dr. Julie Kep has supported employment concerns raised by the principle and urged the SHP Provincial Health Authority and Corporate Church Agencies to get these graduates employed.
