The workshop has been designed to meet the needs of three different services within the hospital: The hospital maintenance team, the new prosthetics satelite service and Community Based Rehabilitation team. 

Maintenance Team

In November 2007 Kilu'ufi Hospital celebrated its 40th anniversary but the structures and facilities have deteriorated significantly in this time.

The maintenance team at Kilu'ufi has an important role to keep the hospital facilities functioning to serve the Malaita Province, but lacks an appropriate workspace to do this.

At present there is limited space to store equipment and supplies.  There is no secure lock up facility so only a few tools are brought to work each day, and these must be taken to the employee's homes after house.  At the moment the team must carry out all their work on location, which may mean using noisy and dangerous tools in the middle of a busy ward.  This is hazardous to families and disturbing to the ill patients.

Currently the Maintenance team is not seen as a department which restricts the funding they receive to do their job.  They are unable to complete jobs as they have no money to by parts. 

The proposed workshop will provide the maintenance team a safe and secure location for their work and storage of their equipment.  The new builiding will identify the individual workers as a department and facilitate an increased budget for the department.  All of these benefits will flow onto Kilu'ufi Hospital as a whole, making it a safer place for patients and staff both now and in the future. 

Protheitc Satellite Service

Amputees must currently travel to the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in Honiara for measuring, casting and fitting of prostheses (artificial limbs).  This process usually takes many months to complete, at great financial cost to the individuals and their families, mho must relocate and support themselves during this time.  In a village context, this also means a loss of productivity and food security for a family who are likely subsistence farmers.  Because of this many cannot obtain a prosthetic leg even though it will ultimately enable independence.

Kilu'ufi Hospital has  initiated a satellite clinic to provide a service to measure, cast, construct and fit prostheses to prevent the necessity of people travelling to Honiara.  A local worker, Willie Aukwai is already undergoing training, however his skill development is limited by the lack of facilities to construct, fit and make adjustments to prostheses. 

Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Team

The CBR service for Maliata is based at Kilu'ufi Hospital.  The three CBR aides work with children and adults with disabilities in their homes and communities throughout the province.  They provide therapy and organise adaptive equipment such as commodes, rails, sliding boards and wheelchairs.

The adaptive equipment is important as without it the enviroments for people with disabilities is often restricted to their bed or living area and additional pressure is placed on their family. 

Currently the only equipment available has been infrequently donated from overseas which usually is inappropriate and doesn't last long in the Solomon Island envrionment and rural lifestyle.

With a workshop the CBR aides together with the hospital maintenance team would be able to adapt and repair this donated equipment and utilise local resources to design and create new equipment.  To encourage sustainability families can be shown how to make items like commodes and sliding boards.  This will result in more people receiving equipment and enjoying a better quality of life.

Our desire is to build a workshop that will not only meet the needs of the local Kilu'ufi community and the people who are disabled and sick within Malaita, but it will improve the lives of their families and villages as well.