Update of all the things currently happening at Kapuna

Hello lovely friends and family of Kapuna. This is an update of all the things currently happening at Kapuna, because a lot is going on! If you haven’t visited Kapuna the last few months you will notice the rapid changes that are in progress. The buildings are sprouting up everywhere and lots of building teams are working all over the place to make it all happen. Very exciting times!

Project launch

Last week the Australian High Commissioner, some national and provincial leaders, Total and IF came to Kapuna for the launch of the IF (PNG-Australia Partnership) project. Three helicopters landed to drop all the guests. The children and surrounding villages danced and sang songs and everyone had a lovely day. It looked like all the visitors were impressed by the whole project and the atmosphere was good. The team who organised the day did a wonderful job and luckily God gave us beautiful weather that day (in a very wet and rainy week).

Antenatal kitchens

The antenatal kitchens are finished! This week the building will be opened. The antenatal kitchen has 16 private rooms and 6 communal kitchens at the back. The building is beautiful! We are sure a lot of mothers will enjoy staying here.

Nutrition unit

The new nutrition unit is also finished. It looks as beautiful as the antenatal kitchen. In the nutrition unit the very sick and malnourished people will be fed on a daily base.

Staff house

The staff house is finished! Marshall and Kelly and the kids are moving in at the moment! The house is beautifully built with 2 bedrooms downstairs and 1 upstairs. The kitchen, a lounge and a big veranda are upstairs. Thank you Mike, you could be an architect!

King’s Highway

At the back of the kitchens you will now find ‘The King’s Highway’. The King’s highway supposedly is the widest path in all of Gulf province that everyone in Kapuna is really enjoying. The wet season has started and on this path you can pass by each other without having to step in the mud…wonderful!

Offloading pontoon

When we look outside our window, we see something very unusual for this part of the country. At the mouth of the creek there is this enormous crane…. The crane is Curtain Bros’ and it is extending our jetty and connecting it to a strong and very big offloading pontoon. So this means that the next time you visit Kapuna, your mud bath won’t be part of the package… The pontoon is a very big and generous gift, which is going to be of great help for Kapuna. The access to the hospital improves a lot and the offloading of cargo will become much easier and safer.

Outpatient department

A few weeks ago, the building team started renovating the out patient department (OPD). The OPD was the first hospital building that was built in 1949. Out of historical purposes it was decided to keep the building intact as much as possible and to renovate it. Currently the team is working on the interior and veranda. It looks very nice and you can still very well recognize the old building.

Self build

In the last update we wrote that the tender process was on the way. This turned out to be a failure. The cheapest contractor was still far over our budget with the other contractors even much more expensive. Lots of discussion followed with IF. As a result, last week we received the news that we can significantly increase our self-build part and all of phase 1 will be done by us. Praise the Lord! We can do so much more with the same money if we are allowed to build ourselves! Last week the team started pediatric ward and next week they will also start with the adult ward.

Females on the job

Another very exciting thing is that 5 female trainees were recently accepted to come and work with the Kapuna carpenters. Also, female guardians are working in the workshop, helping out with painting, cementing and other jobs. Lots of positive things are happening in Kapuna and we are feeling blessed we can be part of all this.

Prayer request

Can you keep Kapuna in your prayers?
Please thank the Lord for:

• The building teams that came over: Craig, Marcus, Taylor, Kerry, Angela, Dave, Kurt, Glen, Stu and Don.
• Everyone who helped to get all the drawings and documents ready for the tender; especially Alan, Ted and Ruben. And also Nilza who did a big job onthe BOQ.
• All the local builders that are working so hard to get all the work done.
• Curtain Bros that is such a great blessing to the place.

Can you pray for:

• More international building teams being willing to come and help.
• More local foremen to apply.
• A good outreach program to the villages (about gender equality and gender based violence)
• Total; that we can keep on using their cargo ship to get all the materials to Kapuna.

Blessings from the Kapuna Team