Retired nurse Fulori Vakawaletabua says training rural women in child health care will significantly cut travelling costs for mothers.
Speaking after the commissioning of the Water and Sanitation Hygiene — WASH — Improvement in Health Care Facility at Nayavuira Nursing Station in Ra, she said if women attended the training and were shown pictures, they would understand because everyone grasped concepts in their own way.
“I’m hoping that they do training on that, there are a lot of young mothers in the community,” Ms Vakawaletabua said.
“From Navuniivi Village, if we cross to Nanukuloa, that’s $30 to drop and pick, so $60 in a day and that’s why they go in groups to share the cost.
“My view is that if they are being trained, maybe people wouldn’t have time to foot the costs to travel from here to the mainland, then from there to town.”
Ms Vakawaletabua said the vast majority of people living in rural and remote areas were well educated.
“From Nayavuira to the mainland, it takes about half an hour. Us, from Navuniivi, it takes 15 minutes to go across. That’s when the weather is good, if it’s rough, then it takes a bit longer.
“Sometimes the nurses have to pay from their own pockets to take a patient to the other side.”
