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LAE, Papua New Guinea —The Papua New Guinea Defence Force conducted engineering civic action programs and provided health services in the Morobe Province during Pacific Angel (PAC Angel) 19-4, Sept 8-13.
“The United States Pacific Air Forces is honored to have been a part of this important effort during Pacific Angel’s 12th year of exercises throughout the region which plays a large part in the execution of an oceanic strategy that fosters a spirit of ‘continued efforts through others,’” said U.S. Air Force Col. Darryl Insley, U.S. Pacific Air Forces. “This event highlights the importance we all place on our steadfast relationship with Papua New Guinea and other nations within this region.”
PAC Angel engagements are a multilateral effort in which partner countries work together to provide health services and civic engineering assistance to nations in the Indo-Pacific region. PAC Angel was previously held in Goroka province, Papua New Guinea, in 2015.
The PAC Angel 19-4 health services outreach included the staging of five clinics: primary care, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy and dental. The team provided care to more than 4,000 patients. The engineering component included civic action projects at local schools and focused on improving the quality of life for students through classroom renovations and restoration of water catchment systems and bathroom facilities.
“Your being here helps support our future and our goals of becoming a healthy, wealthy and wise country,” said Capt. Philip Polewara, PNG Defence Force Chief of Staff. “Your work here has touched the strength of Papua New Guinea; our strength is not in our government, it’s in our people.”
“Over the last few days, I have personally witnessed the friendships develop between partner countries,” said Insley to the people of Papua New Guinea. “We’ve all seen the smile on the children’s faces as we worked together to improve the quality of their education which will translate directly into a more prosperous Papua New Guinea and therefore Indo-Pacific. We learned about your customs and traditions while sharing some of ours. You’ve dressed up our volunteers according to your local traditions…we’ve sung songs and played sports and games with your children. These are the little things that we will all remember that will forge lasting friendships.”
As the team prepares to depart the Morobe province, they do so with more knowledge and experience under their belts and they leave the Lae community stronger and healthier.
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2019 14:56 |
| Story ID: | 340925 |
| Location: | LAE, PG |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, PAC ANGEL 19-4 leaves a stronger, healthier Papua New Guinea, by MSgt Jerilyn Quintanilla, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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