Christina nurse sassamungaChristina awaits clients by playing cards in the newly reopened Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association Youth Friendly Voluntary Confidential Counseling and Testing and Sexual Health Service in Taro, the Provincial Centre of Choiseul Province. But while she fiddles with the cards her mind is somewhere else. The 24 year old Reproductive Health Nurse from Sassamunga, Choiseul Province is thinking about the horrific day of the Tsunami, April 2, 2007. Thoughts of the day’s tragedy play back in her head as if it was it was just yesterday. The first earthquake came, which wasn’t too big, it was just the normal kind that we are used to. The second one came about 5 minutes afterwards and went on too long. It went on and on, no one could stand up, our eyes were dizzy and we felt sick. People were screaming. Not long after a big wave came. It just hit the beach, but was higher than the waves usually come. Everyone panicked and shouted and ran up to the highland on the top of the hill. The second wave came up of the houses and another straight after. From on top of the hill we could see houses and canoes had floated out and then after a short time the village was dry again. Everyone was on top of the hill. All of our things were lost. We stayed on top of the hill in the cold with nothing. Christina was completing her nursing placement at Sassamunga hospital when on April 2, 2007 an undersea earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale resulted in a tsunami, wiping out her home and leaving her family and much of her community internally displaced. She was in the beach side hospital completing, her nursing placement, which services much of southern Choiseul when the first earthquake hit. After two days water and medical supplies arrived in the village. Other nurses and I collected medicine and we serviced the sick people. People were suffering from cough, fever and diarrhea. People were sicker than usual because there was no clean drinking water and from sleeping outside. I think people were also sick from being so scared, when the earthquake wouldn’t stop and the wave came. After two weeks the nurses from Honiara came and we rested. On top of the hill the community was divided, everyone keeping to themselves. UNICEF people came after 2 weeks, and they made a place for the children to go to, they brought things for the children to play with and start to ‘maekem oloketa tink tink gud baek’. It helped to make people not scared anymore and for different families and communities to come back together. People came together and they started sharing stories from the tsunami and feel connected to each other. UNICEF continues to do their work in Sassamunga. They have provided tents for the 2 classrooms and 1 Kindy.’ As part of their psychosocial response to the earthquake and tsunami UNICEF Pacific, in partnership with Solomon Islands Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and NGO partners, developed a total of 94 Play Safe areas reaching 6,500 affected children including Choiseul Province. This allowed internally displaced people, such as those in Christina’s village, the opportunity to come together, share their stories and experiences in a protected environment. Back to her days work Christina continues to wait for her patients. Currently attendance is slow at the clinic, as the service and the Ministry of Health have little funding to run awareness programs in the remote island villages. Soon, as UNICEF Pacific expands its partnership with the Solomon Islands to Provincial Level, Provincial Government and other stakeholders will be supported to run various programs including awareness on HIV at community level throughout remote Choiseul Province. Young people’s awareness will be raised and they will be encouraged to visit the clinic to gain more information and access services.
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