During their oversight visit to Apia, PIRMCCM Oversight Working Group (OWG) members met with staff from Samoa’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development to follow the progress and challenges of program implementation in Samoa’s public sector.
Ms Adele Keil-Mauiliu, Principal Coordination Resourcing and Monitoring Officer at the Ministry of Health, guided OWG members through the recently established pharmaceutical warehouse in Moto’otua, a state of the art facility which has begun storing medicines ready for distribution to hospitals in Upolu and Savai’i.
“Previously we didn’t have a proper place to securely store and distribute pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to all our district hospitals,” Ms Keil-Mauiliu explains. “This is a real milestone for us in terms of safely storing equipment as well as ensuring pharmaceutical supplies are not stored past expiry.”
The recent renovation of Malietoa Tanumafili II Hospital in Savai’I has been another noteworthy milestone for Samoa’s health sector, with an upgraded emergency room, dental clinic, pharmacy, laboratory and records room among a host of additions to ensure an improvement in quality of health care on the island of Savai’i.
“The goal there was to ensure the same quality of services were being provided as the main hospital here in Upolu,” says Ms Keil-Mauiliu. “We’ve extended a lot of the available services and are continuing to develop this further in order to minimise the need to transfer patients to Upolu. These have been two huge milestones for the health sector, to ensure there’s quality of service and improvement of infrastructure for both patients and staff.”
During subsequent talks with the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, OWG members spoke with Ms Ana Leau, Senior Youth Officer, regarding sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs taking place throughout Samoa.
“Much of our work relates to women’s general health, as well as SRH and HIV,” notes Ms Leau. “In order to meet people’s unmet SRH needs we run various programs for target groups, including young couples (aged 18-35). We found there are conflicting issues and misunderstandings of SRH rights and opportunities between young couples; some men oppose the use of family planning, so our aim is to foster mutual understanding and good relationships between men and women.”
Along with the need to promote family planning among young couples, Ms Leau explains how an increase in teenage pregnancy in Samoa has led to the team reaching out to young mothers and their families in a bid to keep girls in school, combat social stigma and strengthen awareness of SRH rights.
“Sometimes young girls fall pregnant and don’t have the opportunity to complete their secondary education,” says Ms Leau. “To us from a human rights perspective that’s a hindrance to their future, so we have been running the Teen Mums Program since 2013 to give these girls a chance to understand their SRH rights.
“We also work with parents, the Ministry of Education and schools because many parents of these young girls believe once their daughter gets pregnant she cannot go back to the school system. There’s no such policy within the Ministry of Education – the girls are welcome to go back to school – so we hope that in advocating for young mothers this program can continue to help combat the stigma surrounding teenage pregnancy.”