HAI Timor-Leste receives a visit from the Governor of New South Wales
On December 20, 2011, HAI Timor-Leste had the great honor to welcome a delegation from The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), including Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, the Governor of New South Wales, to visit several HAI-supported sites. Dr. Bashir is a psychiatrist who has done work in Thailand and Cambodia and received awards from a number of countries for her work in mental health. She spent her time in Timor visiting a public health facility and a SISCa - Integrated Community Health Services event -- in Bazartete, Liquica district.
"We support health facilities by providing coaching wherever the health worker needs it," said HAI staff member Filomena Mendonça, who accompanied Dr. Bashir. "Sometimes that means extra training on maternal child health, or data entry, or post-partum follow up. We support the SISCas because they take health services to the communities, closer to where people live."
This was Her Excellency's first visit to Timor-Leste, and thanks to the strong collaboration between the Ministry of Health and HAI, the trip was a total success. The Governor especially enjoyed seeing a SISCa in action and discovering the realities of accessing health care in rural settings. Though much remains to be done to improve maternal and child health in Timor-Leste, these bridges between policy makers and the people most affected by those policies is a critical part in ensuring effective, sustainable programs.
Parabens to the Timor-Leste team for representing HAI so well!
Leave a Reply