The birth of the Marovo Medical Mission
In 2006, Dr. Suzanne Daly and her husband, Allan, took a side trip from Australia to the Solomon Islands to go scuba diving. While staying at Uepi Island Resort, Dr. Daly was asked to see a couple of the staff members who were from local villages. Without any tools of the trade, Dr. Daly determined the first patient had a bleeding ulcer and the second a urinary tract infection. She treated the bleeding ulcer with Allan’s reflux medicine and the second with ciprofloxacin that they had taken in the event of traveler’s diarrhea.
This was the purest form of the doctor-patient relationship that Dr. Daly hadn’t ever witnessed since she became a physician. There was no paperwork, insurance, or HIPPA to cloud the waters. At this point, Dr. Daly says a fire was lit from within to make a difference in the Marovo Lagoon community.
The first visit to the seghe hospital
A hospital bed at the Seghe Hospital during their first visit.
This feeling was further cemented when the Daly’s toured the local hospital in Seghe. It was a quick tour on the way to their departing flight. The conditions they witnessed were bleak and unacceptable by American standards. The hospital had no reliable source of electricity or running water!
As their plane took off, the Daly’s looked at one another and agreed that they could not turn their backs on this community. They knew they had to do something to improve the conditions at Seghe Hospital.
The second visit to seghe
The Seghe Airport
During this second visit, Allan made a proposal to Bishop Wilfred Kurepitu of the United Church of the Solomon Islands (UCSI) to install a solar power system on the hospital. The UCSI owns the hospital facility while the Ministry of Health provides the staffing and medicines for the facility.
Three months later, Allan received word that his proposal had been overwhelmingly approved by the hospital board. Now the Daly’s were faced with a daunting task of raising nearly $100,000 in short order to purchase, ship, and install a 10KW solar power system on the Seghe Hospital.
The solar System installation
Solar Power Installation
In November, 2008, the Daly’s returned to the Marovo with a team prepared to install the solar power system. In addition to folks ready to work on the solar power system, the team of 16 people included several physicians, a dentist, two nurse practitioners, and an RN.
We were able to construct a battery building with the help of local workers from Uepi Island Resort. The battery building was situated alongside the hospital to house the batteries and control components. We were able to install the batteries, inverters, and charge controllers. Unfortunately, the first half of the purchased solar panels were lost for six months on their way through Australia.
The Good News: During this first group trip the medical team was successful in treating approximately 500 villagers at the Seghe Hospital and surrounding villages. This was a great start for our group medical missions.
Power arrives at the seghe hospital
One month prior to our second group trip in June 2009, the solar panels were found in a warehouse in Sydney, Australia. The shipping company paid to fly them to the Solomons. We then found the money to purchase the remaining half of the solar panels and fly them to the Solomons prior to our arrival.
At the end of the June 2009 trip, we were able to turn on the electricity at the Seghe Hospital. Currently, the solar power system on the Seghe Hospital is the largest in the Solomon Islands! There is enough electricity to run all the lights, the pump for running water and an air conditioner in the pharmacy. The nurses are no longer checking IV’s by flashlight or delivering babies by candlelight. Excess power is available for additional services including the planned operating room.