This week we are celebrating International Women’s Day here at Interplast – by highlighting the work of some of our inspiring women. We’re bringing you a series of three profiles of some of the incredible women that are involved in our programs.
Jenny Ball – physiotherapist and Interplast volunteer
For Hobart physiotherapist Jenny Ball, volunteering with Interplast affords the privilege of passing on knowledge in a very practical way. Recognising how fortunate she was to be able to have great mentors in her own career, she hopes that her volunteering work can lessen the tyranny of distance and isolation for her Fijian colleagues.
Jenny first became involved with Interplast back in the 1990s, through a Rotary project in Hobart set up by Interplast volunteer surgeon Dr Miki Pohl, which brought surgeons from the Pacific to Hobart for 3 month training fellowships in plastic surgery. Jenny spent time teaching each surgeon about the benefits of post-surgical physiotherapy on patient outcomes in burns and hands patients. This led her to being invited to join an Interplast team to Suva, Fiji, in 2000, to present on the role of physiotherapy as part of a week-long series of workshops at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. The workshop had 100 participants, representing all of the Pacific Islands.
Since then, Jenny has returned to Suva on several occasions and on a regular basis since 2014, leading Interplast’s allied health training program in Fiji. Through these programs, Jenny has contributed greatly to the building of local physiotherapy capacity, supporting both the physiotherapists working at the CWM Hospital as well as the physiotherapy training through the Fiji National University. This has included hosting Fijian physiotherapist Alena Lawena for a training placement in Hobart, which you can read more about here, and providing ongoing support to Alena to become a leader in her profession.
