Joe Manu, Dental equipment Technician extra-ordinary

One of the problems of delivering aid to developing countries is a lack of skilled Maintenance. Good equipment is given, but may not be installed, or if installed by aid agencies, then simple repairs may not happen, and the equipment, and all the effort and expense to get the equipment to the deserving country, is wasted.

 

However, The Rotary Club of Ballarat West and the Dental Department of the Tongan Ministry of Health have worked together to solve this problem. A one month refresher course on dental equipment maintenance and repairs was arranged by Tonga CDO Dr 'Amanaki Fakakovikaitau.  This is a continuation of a well established dental equipment training and installations program which dates back to 2001 between Mr Sioeli Manu and Australian dental equipment engineers Peter Copp and Cale Ziola as Rotary volunteers.

   Mr Manu (Joe) has made several visits to Australia to update his skills but the latest one was back in 2006. There have been many changes in dental equipment over the past 10 years so this was a welcome opportunity for Mr Manu to upgrade his skills. Joe spent four weeks in Australia, concentrating, inter alia, on a better understanding of complete network of hydraulic, pneumatic & electro-valves internally covering a vast array of dental equipment.  Click here to see The log of his work experience over the first three weeks

 

Mr Manu (Joe) has made several visits to Australia to update his skills but the latest one was back in 2006. There have been many changes in dental equipment over the past 10 years so this was a welcome opportunity for Mr Manu to upgrade his skills.

 

This maintenance twinning arrangement has been enormously successful and was followed up by unpaid annual volunteer team visits to Tonga between 2001 and 2014. This collaboration with Mr Manu and particularly Paul Harris Fellow Mr Peter Copp has resulted in the supply and installation of something like

 

Joe is the only trained indigenous dental biomedical engineer in the South Pacific. Being largely self-sufficient in this area is something Tonga can be justly proud of and something that has saved the MOH in Tonga a large amount of money and equipment down time and ensured continuity of dental services to the community

 

This has resulted in the smooth running of the dental department's equipment needs throughout Tonga and the outer islands.

 

A less tangible but important and satisfying result has also been the goodwill and friendship that has resulted from this twinning visits which date back to 1995.

This visit was arranged with accommodation close to Cale Ziola’s Dentequip company's premises in Werribee Victoria. This was ideal as the program involved travelling around a large number of geographically diverse dental practices in Victoria so they were able to travel together. Mr. Cale Ziola and Joe Manu work well together so the visit proved to be not just instructive but also a very harmonious one. The days were long and the work quite intensive but this has proven to be the best way to gain much useful experience in the short time available

 

Joe also met with Peter Copp refreshing a long-established connection dating back to the 1990s and obtained a useful collection of donated spare parts suitable for Tonga.  Cale Ziola added to this targeted collection which is now on its way to Tonga in a Rotary shipping container along with a large consignment of goods from St John of God Hospital in Ballarat c/o John MacDonald.

 

We are very grateful to Cale Ziola and Dentequip for the time and expertise so generously donated to the project, to Peter Copp and to Dentequip for spare parts donations, and also to Kava Tu'imeiuta and family for their help with the attachment.

 

Thank you to the Dental Department and the Tonga Ministry of Health for sponsoring Mr Manu's visit and we look forward to further cooperation in the future.

 

Kind regards

 

David Goldsmith