Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is focusing on a health promoting village project project to improve the health condition of people living in the rural areas.
Chief adviser of the project Dr. Rikimaru of JICA said the project will kick start, once the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) approved their proposal in November this year.
He said this project will start with a survey to be carried out to gauge the fundamental health problems in the rural areas that need to be address, to prevent avoidable deaths and enhance healthy lifestyle in the villages.
Rikimaru also said the project will focus on Guadalcanal and Makira before it could reach out to other provinces.
He added it will be a good project to improve the health conditions in remote areas, as surveys to be conduct will assess sanitation, water contamination, nutritional level, Non Communicable Disease (NCD) and many more indicators to measure the healthiness of our villagers.
The 65 year old Japanese physician said after collecting data from their survey then recommendations will be made on how to address the health issues identified.
Thus, he said a model will be put in place to guide them when responding to health problems identified to be vital to their survival.
“For example in Solomon Islands we have noticed that many young children died because of diarrhoea, which could be avoided, but due to poor sanitation and low nutrition level these avoidable deaths continues to happen,” he commented.
He said Solomon Islands will be his last country to help to improve health conditions in the rural areas, adding his experience in similar project in Egypt, Yemen, Tanzania, Ghana and Nepal will enable him to give his best to support this country enhance its health status in the world.
By AATAI JOHN
