When I found out that I could use my weblog quite frequently I promised myself that I would use this medium once to get something done for the department. So what I’m I asking from you?

One thing we physiotherapists have identified in PNG is the lack of awareness regarding physiotherapy. People here are familiar with traditional healing and use it a lot. Medication is used on the side, because you never know; it might just work.

Physiotherapy is very young in PNG. Like I must have said before, there are only two Papua New Guinean physio’s in the country. And it must sound a little strange, but I know every physiotherapist in PNG. A friend of mine, Petra, came to PNG and met almost every physiotherapist in a country 10 times the size of the Netherlands. She thought this quite fascinating.

The need for awareness has been identified not only on local, but also on national level. But what do we do on local level? This is the place where it all happens. We are doing awareness, but it seems hard to explain what physiotherapy is. Why? We are using western terminology to explain this and people are not familiar with these. So we decided to something with recognition. If everybody in the physiotherapy department wears the same uniform, people will start to associate these nice people with the work they do. We will use name recognition and a strong oral culture to our advantage.
Unfortunately I’m the third volunteer asking for uniforms from the hospital (this about 5 years of asking) and we still haven’t gotten any. So this is why I’m asking you. Would you like to help us out?

I’ve asked for a quotation from a local tailoring company and it will be about 2000 kina (around 500 euro) to get uniforms for seven people in the department; two extra uniforms for students coming to do a practical period.

The uniform would look like this:

This is a uniform they use in Wewak hospital.
We would of course use our own logo.

With thanks to Joanna who designed it.

Money can be deposited on my account:
Sjoerd Jongerius
14.23.15.125
Posterholt
If you are in a foreign country and you also feel you want to contribute use this code: NL88 RABO 0142 3151 25
Deposite under: Uniforms + your name

The result was very good.