A $2.9M-worth emergency service boat and engine were provided to Santa Mission by the Ministry of Public Health, on Thursday, and will help to improve access to healthcare services for some 300 residents and reduce the village’s maternal mortality rate.
The initiative forms a part of the Ministry’s $1.6B Maternal and Child Health Project launched in 2017 which sees the distribution of transportation, equipment and other relevant materials to reduce maternal, perinatal and neonatal death rates.

It was made possible through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). At the small ceremony, Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawernce, said that the Ministry continues to work assiduously to ensure that Guyanese, no matter where they reside, have access to quality healthcare.

“This is going to help in terms of bringing out our maternal cases to the higher institution of service which would be the Diamond Diagnostic Center for them and it will assist in providing other services for other patients within the area,” she said.

Santa Mission is a tiny Arawak community on the Kamuni River in Region Three where residents gain an income primarily from logging and farming.

Minister Lawrence said that the government and the Ministry have increased their efforts to prevent maternal deaths, having acknowledged, a few years back, that the high figures could not continue to climb. The boat donated is just one example of measures that have and are being put in place to ensure that the maternal deaths are brought to zero.
The boat donated comes with floatation devices such as life jackets and other health-related apparatus.