DWU Health graduate makes his mark in Church fight against HIV/AIDS

Graham Apian is my name and I am from the East Sepik province. I com­pleted my four year degree program in Health Management at Divine Word University – Madang in 2010 and graduated in 2011.

I am currently working with the National Catholic HIV/AIDS Office in Port Mo­resby, a body under the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG & Solomon Islands (CBC) that advocates the Catholic Church’s response to the HIV epidemic in PNG.

I am currently working as the Moni­toring and Evaluation Officer for all HIV projects within 19 dioceses un­der the Catholic Church. The projects evolve around Volunteer Confidential Counselling and Testing (VCCT). The Church has an affiliation of 126 sites providing the service nationwide with 18 of those sites providing Anti-retro­viral treatment for people living with HIV. My main role is to collect and evaluate data from these sites in the 19 dioceses and produce performance reports on a quarterly basis including an an­nual one. These reports are submitted to the National Department of Health, AusAID, Catho­lic Bishops Conference, external stakeholders and of course the National Catholic HIV/AIDS Office. Part of my job is to travel to project sites to conduct environmental and situation analysis plus mutual discussions with site coordinators as part of my monitor­ing activities

I enjoy the work I am doing and more to it I am really having hands on experi­ence to the theories I have learnt during my four years of studies. Resource Management, Project Management and Health Policies, to name a few, are some of the units that surround the funda­mentals of the role I am tasked to perform. (DWU Health Management Newsletter – August 2012)