Social violence is rife in Papua New Guinea and Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical and psychosocial care to survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Contributing factors to the violence are manifold and include poverty, urbanisation and unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, and limited government capacity to provide adequate care.

Lae is Papua New Guinea’s second largest city, and our team runs a Family Support Centre at Angau Memorial General Hospital. Family Support Centres offer a safe space to people escaping domestic or social violence. Patients receive medical care, but also social and psychological support. Our staff at the centre offer comprehensive, free, medical and psychosocial care to around 200 new patients a month.

In the rural town of Tari, in the southern highlands,  our teams provide emergency surgery at Tari hospital and work in a Family Support Centre. In 2010, staff carried out more than 13,000 general consultations and more than 5,400 mental health consultations in Tari and Lae general hospitals.
Hidden and Neglected: The Medical and Emotional Needs of Survivors of Family and Sexual Violence in Papua New Guinea was published in December 2010 and reports on Médecins Sans Frontières’ experience in the provision of medical and psychosocial care in the country. Médecins Sans Frontières makes a number of concrete recommendations for action by national authorities, civil society and international donors, particularly regarding the establishment and operation of Family Support Centres. 

Cholera outbreaks

The emergency response to a cholera outbreak in East Sepik province, in the north of the country, concluded in mid-2010. We set up 12 treatment units, 2 treatment centres and 22 oral rehydration points, and trained over 1,000 health workers in clinical management and infection control. We also provided material, training and staff in response to a further outbreak in the Fly River area in November 2010. In total, staff treated more than 580 people for cholera in 2010.

Médecins Sans Frontières has worked in Papua New Guinea since 2009.