Kiribati President Gives 'Resounding Applause' for Pacific Partnership
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS090905-07
Release Date: 9/5/2009 11:15:00 PM
By Lt. Cmdr. Nancy Harrity, Pacific Partnership Public Affairs
BETIO, Kiribati (NNS) -- Pacific Partnership 2009 departed Kiribati Sept. 4 after 14 days of working alongside the I-Kiribati delivering a variety of humanitarian civic assistance programs.
"Pacific Partnership came into Kiribati quietly with the arrival of the advance team, but will leave Kiribati with resounding applause especially given the huge impact it has made on the lives of our people," said Kiribati President Atone Tong in his remarks at the closing ceremony Sept. 4.
"Everyone in Tarawa and Kiribati will be talking about Pacific Partnership 2009 for years to come."
"You have shown us indeed that anything is possible," said Tong.
Adm. Robert F. Willard, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander visited Kiribati shortly after Pacific Partnership began its work there.
"Our Pacific Partnership mission has evolved over the years, with more partners and volunteers to work with the host nations. Now when that first boat or helo arrives, they see it's an international face. And we are side by side with regional countries, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and international agencies. There's great power in that," said Willard.
Mission activities centered on engineering, medical and community relations activities throughout South Tarawa.
Engineering teams completed a number of projects including replacing the Tanaea-Bouta Bridge, and renovations at Tobontemaneaba Primary School.
The multinational engineering team representing Australia, Canada and the United States removed and dismantled the existing failed Tanaea-Bouta Bridge and replaced it with a pre-engineered bridge similar to a life-sized Erector Set. The team also added an extra layer of anti-corrosive coating and installed bollards, headwalls and new ramps to protect the bridge, which is expected to last more than 20 years.
The bridge connects North and South Tarawa and serves approximately 5000 local residents.
"The opening of the Tanaea-Bouta Bridge on Wednesday witnessed by hundreds of people was undoubtedly the highlight of Pacific Partnership 2009 mission and brought much celebration by our people and the engineering team," said Tong. "I have not seen that happen in Kiribati ever – that is for a bridge to be built in a matter of days."
Willard also recognized the importance of the bridge during his visit and thanked the international team of engineers and builders who worked side by side in Kiribati.
"Hopefully, what we build and leave behind will be enduring, because we have done it together. This is what we ought to be doing day-to-day to ensure peace and security in this important part of the world," Willard said.
The Tobontemaneaba School is the largest school located in Southeast Tarawa, serving more than 700 students. The engineering team replaced a flat roof with a gabled roof on one of the school's five classroom buildings, improving ventilation in the building's two classrooms, which means a cooler learning environment for students.
The team replaced the exterior sheeting and primed and painted the interior and exterior walls on all five classroom buildings. Additionally, the team improved the school's water supply and sanitation by installing a water tank tower, three elevated water catchment tanks, a water pump, 250 feet of guttering and replacing nine toilets and two sinks, so the students will no longer have to use the beach.
The combined medical team represented Kiribati and partner nations Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea and the United States and NGOs University of California San Diego Pre-Dental Society and Project Hope.
Medical teams worked alongside medical staff at Tungaru Hospital, conducted two days of medical outreach to the remote islands of Abaokoro and Buariki, and provided a variety of services as part of a medical civic action program at Betio Sports Center. The team saw a total of 5,078 patients at all sites.
At Tungaru Hospital, Pacific Partnership's dental team worked alongside the hospital's dentists as part of daily, clinical subject matter expert exchanges. The team provided dental hygiene treatments, completed oral surgeries, provided instruction on proper use of instruments and discussed techniques for scaling and root planning, taught waiting patients how to care for their teeth and administered fluoride treatments.
The biomedical repair team assessed 26 pieces of equipment and was able to repair seven of those. Pacific Partnership medical officers also participated in Subject Matter Expert Exchanges (SMEEs) on evaluation of emergency room patients, pediatrics, neo-natal intensive care, labor and delivery, mother and infant care, nursing, surgical wound care, pain management and how to assess and repair broken equipment.
Two ten-person medical teams traveled via helicopter to the North Tarawa islands of Abaokoro and Buariki for two days each, hand carrying the necessary equipment and supplies to provide basic eye, dental, adult and pediatric care. The team at Abaokoro saw a total of 468 patients, while the team at Buariki saw 428 patients over the two-day outreach.
Betio Sports Complex served as the site for the main medical civic action program where the medical team integrated nurses, a dental therapist, pharmacy technician and volunteers from local non-governmental organizations into the team each day, providing the opportunity for the I-Kiribati medical professionals to learn new techniques and for Pacific Partnership personnel to learn more about how the Kiribati health system works. The team provided medical and dental care including dermatologic, optometric, dental, and basic pediatric and adult exams, seeing a total of 3786 patients over seven-and-a-half days.
The preventative medicine/U.S. Public Health service team assisted the Ministry of Health with promoting the health of Kiribati residents and tourists with food safety instruction and inspection, water testing and treatment, mosquito and rodent control and recommending high-impact engineering solutions for water treatment and waste management. The team provided guidance on the new Kiribati influenza surveillance program, enhancing the country's disease surveillance capability including H1N1 influenza. Taken together, these activities impacted all of South Tarawa's 30,000 residents.
The veterinary team treated many of South Tarawa's animals large and small ranging from cats and dogs to pigs, chickens and fish.
The team performed desexing operations, dewormings, vaccinations, surgeries, other sick call visits and subject matter expert exchange on topics such as bio-security, disease identification and aquaculture standards.
The Pacific Partnership team completed a number of community relations programs including school visits, clean up at the U.S. Marine Memorial, a convent visit and delivered 28 pallets of Project Handclasp donations. Participants for each project came from USNS Richard E. Byrd crew members and Pacific Partnership mission team members who could spare time from their normal duties.
The team visited more than 1000 primary, middle and high school students during three school visits as part of the mission's community relations program. At each school, the Pacific Fleet Band played music, the students shared local dances and everyone had the opportunity to interact.
At the U.S. Marine Memorial at the Betio Sports Complex, the team pulled weeds around the memorial and completed other basic yard work, sprucing up the memorial.
The team visited the sisters at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent, learning more about the Battle of Tarawa and dropping off books on the battle and archival materials donated by the Wilmington, N.C. Rotary Club and transported by USNS Richard E. Byrd as part of Project Handclasp.
The Richard E. Byrd crew also delivered clothing donated by its crew members.
The Pacific Partnership team this visit included military and government personnel from Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea and the United States and civilian volunteers from Project Hope and University of California San Diego Pre-Dental Society who worked alongside their local counterparts. Additionally, Interplast accepted surgical referrals from our medical civic action programs.
Pacific Partnership works by, with and through partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government and international agencies to execute a variety of humanitarian civic assistance (HCA) missions in the Pacific Fleet area of responsibility from a ship dedicated to this HCA mission. This year's mission is focused ashore with a variety of engineering, medical and dental civic action programs providing humanitarian civic assistance. The mission continues on to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and has completed visits to Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Kiribati.
For more news from Pacific Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cpf/.
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