“Professor Sue McDonald (Rotary Club of North Balwyn) and I ran our 19th Emergency Obstetric Refresher Training Workshops since the inception of the programme in 2011, in Lospalos the week of the 6th May 2019. Again a feature was that all the teaching was done by our Timor Leste faculty with our role being mentoring and supervision.
Two further trainee trainers joined our panel so that now there is a strong cohort in Baucau and Lospalos and with a further two to be added when we return for our last visit to Viqueque in July, should ensure that the eastern end of Timor Leste have the trainers to continue refresher and upskilling their maternity staff in the outlying subdistricts.
The personal consequences of the tragedy of maternal death was starkly brought home, with the news that Mario De Jesus’, the Liaison Officer from the Dili Rotary office, sister had died in childbirth shortly after arrival at Bacau Hospital, following transfer from Lospalos and her baby died two days later. There was another maternal death nearby the week before.
Twenty midwives and doctors participated enthusiastically in the workshops, attendance complicated by the 4 days of torrential rain that came from Tropical Cyclone Lilli off the coast of Timor Leste. Some of the already treacherous roads were made impassable out from Lospalos. Travel to and from Dili to Lospalos due to the road reconstruction was the most challenging of all our 19 trips!!
We had unsolicited feedback from Baucau Hospital that the transfers of women in late pregnancy and in labour had substantially diminished with a consequent reduction in the number of caesarean sections and this was directly attributed to the refresher training in Lospalos and Viqueque.
We are currently waiting on a response from the Minister of Health about whether they want us to seek funding to run a set of train the trainer sessions in the Western end of Timor Leste when this VTT grant expires. The need for ongoing training especially for those working in the remote areas remains acute."
