Lapalama Health Centre

Lapalama is about 4 hours walk or 5 minutes by light aircraft north of Kompiam and right on the edge of the “deep forest”. Lapalama is home to a large population and was for a long time an impressive mission station connected by road to Kompiam. A major tribal fight spanning 18 years from 1992 to 2010 and government neglect saw the once considerable facilities run down and parts of the station return to bush.

In 2010 peace negotiations were concluded and since then Lapalama has started to slowly rebuild its services.

E.B.H.S. has taken possession of one of the old mission houses and with help from Australian medical students, overseas donors and the University of Papua New Guinea is working to turn Lapalama into a major base for medical student training, particularly for 5th year PNG medical students. The health centre itself has been fully maintained and provided with 240v solar power, solar lights and fridge and a reliable water supply. Maintenance on staff housing was commenced in May 2017.

It is our vision to see many Australian and PNG students pass through this health centre, getting a feel for the true remoteness of PNG frontier territories and providing services to some of our most needy people.

See our Donations page if you would like to help with this project.