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Tonga Welcomes Pacific Partners Into Remote Regions

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090727-15
Release Date: 7/27/2009 5:03:00 PM

By Royal Australian Navy Lt. Lauren Rago, Pacific Partnership 2009 Public Affairs

UIHA, Tonga (NNS) -- Tonga welcomed a multi-skilled U.S. Navy medical and dental team to deliver specialist aid and public health education advice to local communities during a two-week medical civic action (MEDCAP) program July 13-25.

The expeditionary Pacific Partnership medical mission has visited the islands Ha'hafeva and Ha'ano and is currently on the Island of Uiha with a family medicine physician, optometrist, dentist and pediatrician.

Working closely with the Tongan community, the health professionals have seen nearly every person who desires medical attention on each island.

"It has been a great opportunity for subject matter expert exchange. We work closely with the local medical practitioners, district officers and Peace Corps personnel to deliver requirements as efficiently and effectively as possible," said Cmdr. Scott Cota, outreach officer in charge and a family practitioner.

"Everywhere we go the sites are very well organized," said Cota.

"We have seen around 1,500 people on this mission out here including recipients of public health lectures on subjects such as emergency response and first aid," he said.

"It has been a great training opportunity for the team. It practices our ability to be versatile and adapt to situations with different or limited resources at hand," he continued.

"The local turnout and support has been outstanding," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeniko Johnson, a hospital corpsman and site supervisor.

"It has obviously been well publicized that we are here and anyone who can speak English is helping us out as a translator," she said.

The enabling platform for the remote MEDCAP is Royal Australian Navy Landing Craft Heavy HMAS Betano. The Betano crew is supporting the U.S. health specialists by processing patients, entertaining children, conducting construction projects such as fixing toilets and doors, counting pills at the pharmacy and even assisting with dental care.

"This is my fifth humanitarian mission, but this is the best display of teamwork I have ever seen," said Cota. "This remote program could not have happened without the Australian Navy crew."

The Pacific Partnership team is living aboard HMAS Betano. "Life is great on board," said Johnson. "The crew works hard with us all day and arranges fun on board in the evenings with the occasional movie night or trivia night. It has a family feel," she said. "Morale is good."

"I look forward to working with the Aussies again in the future," said Johnson.

Pacific Partnership is a U.S.-sponsored training and readiness mission which works through, with and by a diverse range of militaries, governments and non-government organizations to develop foreign interoperability in delivering effective humanitarian and disaster relief aid in U.S. Pacific Fleet area of responsibility.

For more news from Pacific Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cpf/.