Caption: (L) Health
Secretary Pascoe Kase and Melanie Higgins exchanging the signed documents.
By MATTHEW VARI
PAPUA New Guinea’s National Aid Strategy 2011-2015 has been
further strengthened following the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU)
between the Department of Health and United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) to provide technical expertise to the department in its
fight against the disease.
The signing was done yesterday between the Secretary for
Health Pascoe Kase and the Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy Melanie
Higgins.
Secretary Kase thanked the US Government for its support in
addressing one of the biggest health challenges in the country as partners in
line with the national health plans already in place.
“We have a lot of health challenges in the country and we
cannot afford to tackle them on our own,” Kase said.
“For a partner such as the US to come along and help us
achieve our goals is much appreciated, as the National Health Plan is clear and
simple- it outline our strategies and HIV AIDS is a main focus area as one of
the challenges in the public health area.”
“We are aware and happy to sign the MoU which will greatly
enhance our preparedness also in other areas of outbreaks in disease and
disaster both manmade and natural.”
Deputy Chief of
Mission Higgins said that there main aim was to see Papua New Guineans live
stronger, healthier lives.
“My government would ultimately like to see an AIDS free
world, and we hope to achieve this by bringing resources on the table and with
this cooperation work towards the National AIDS Strategy,” Higgins said.
“We want to HIV clinical services brought right down from the
national level to the local levels to move forward and enhance the capacity in
the country to deal with the disease.”
She said that the three year MoU would support the national
strategy as a road map to align multilateral programs operating from the US
into the region from both government run aid programs to private initiative
like the Clinton Foundation and other programs.
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