A soup kitchen without religion

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

 

AFTER making a headcount of orphans who came for last Saturday’s feeding session, he walked back to me and said: “Fredo, we got 51 kids today. Anyway, attendance is better today than last Saturday’s.”

Actually, this should be a big concern, but Hayward Sagembo was not worried.

“Guardian parents are now realising that we are doing our best to serve these orphans, making the most of what we got here so they are again letting their kids to come back and have food from our soup kitchen.

Hayward, 34, is the chairman of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) Inc, an orphanage looking after at least 78 children who reside with respective parent-guardians at ATS Oro Settlement at Seven-Mile outside of Port Moresby.

Since 2003 when there were only 35 orphans under its care, TCC has been giving lunch meal to the settlement orphans at least four times a week, including a Saturday feeding session.

The past seven years were crunch years as they had spent their own money to pay for orphans’ food. These days, however, they are better off with some modest funding help from two foundations, a private vessel towing company and kind-hearted individuals.

But two Saturdays ago, the feeding attendance dropped to 45. Hayward knew why.

 “You see,” he told me after a feeding session last Saturday: “We are having problems with some people in the settlement. They are spreading wrong information to parents and guardians of those orphans about TCC.

 “I feel that they are out to ruin our program for these kids and I know their motives.”

“They” are those individuals who, after failing in politics, have recently started their own “feeding programme” at the settlement.

But the trouble is that they are trying to ‘pirate’ the kids from TCC’s so they could gather as much children as they could and use the statistics for funding proposals to foundations and funding institutions.

And this has upset Hayward. In their attempt to steal his wards, he said individuals are also allegedly spreading lies.

One such lie is that TCC is just holding feeding sessions to get funds and pocket them, an allegation which he vehemently denied.

He explained: As a community-based organisation (CBO) registered with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), TCC is governed by laws and by its own constitution, with counter-checks from officers for transparency in all its activities, including its spending.

“But what is worst is that they are telling settlement parents that our kids are orphans of people who died from HIV/AIDS and that these kids are infected or HIV-positive, this is, of course, untrue!”

Such misinformation, says Hayward, has scared many parents and guardians that they prevented the orphans – about 28 -- from coming to read books at TCC’s learning center and to have lunch meals.

The fact is, Hayward and his wife Penny know more about HIV/AIDS than anybody else in the settlement, their being certified HIV/AIDS councilors.

Hayward is a full-time HIV/AIDS councilor with Simon of Cyrene VCT based at Hohola, while Penny is a technical officer for sexual health at the Save the Children, Inc, an NGO based in Boroko.

“Those parents, being ignorant that they are, are getting confused of the information fed to them by TCC’s rival groups, because if these were true, how come TCC is getting full support from foundations like WeCare and Digicel Foundation?”

Just to think that WeCare just spent more than K7, 000 in school fees on TCC’s 42 school-age children who are now enrolled in 17 preparatory and elementary schools around Port Moresby.

Aside from that, WeCare and a Port Moresby-based vessel towing company Pacific Towing Ltd led by its general manager, John Whitfield, are each giving a monthly grant of K400 to pay for the cost of TCC’s four times-a-week feeding program and related expenses.

And because of the consistency in the way Hayward, Penny, who is the TCC founder and coordinator and the volunteer mothers have pursued their services to the kids, kind-hearted individuals are now volunteering to sponsor TCC’s Saturday feeding where the orphans are given especially-cooked lunch.

Marina van der Vlies, chief executive of Digicel Foundation, a TCC benefactor, earlier described Penny as “visionary” for the great things she and her volunteers have done to look after the orphans’ education.

To neutralise the negative effects of misinformation, its volunteer-mothers went around the settlement, and are still doing so these days, explaining to guardian parents TCC’s welfare programme.

Finally, doubting parents have seen the light, having been convinced of TCC’s earnestness in helping the kids.

Hayward said that being community-based, Tembari Children’s Care Inc, has its resources right in ATS Oro Settlement, and these resources are the children under their care.

“We are right here in their midst, we see each child’s problem at once and we try to deal with such and we have instilled in the minds of well-meaning parent-guardians that they should own TCC and support it. They should consider TCC as their own because it’s the one that will take care of orphans left to them by their deceased parents.”

While TCC sits right in the settlement, other social-oriented groups trying to operate at ATS Oro Settlement are Port Moresby-based. The settlement is home to 9,000 people of whom 3,000 are children.

“They are all based in Port Moresby … they come to the settlement to interview local people, gather facts and stats, submit their funding grant proposals to relevant institutions, and disappear for good once the cheques are released,” Hayward said.

“Their supposed resources – the poor people, particularly the children who are supposed to benefit from such grants, are here in the settlement but these groups are operating away from them, with no contact at all their only link is the fact that they had been used to obtain such funding grants.

“I think this is not right.”

Because TCC is blind to churches’ denominations, it effectively serves the nutritional, education and parental needs of its children who are from 10 different religious groups.

But in the case of churches providing social services at the settlement, which Hayward declined to identify, the situation is “ridiculous”.

“Their delivery of services is ineffective, because not everyone gets the benefit from money these churches receive from donors, including the Government. Government funds should not discriminate anyone.”

“If you belong to a particular denomination, you are not welcome to receive the benefits, say medical or educational, and you don’t get fed, as in a feeding program despite your hunger because you don’t belong to their church. How could this happen to our people who are all children of one God?”

Well, there are many more “anomalous” situations floating around but TCC, through Hayward and Penny, and their volunteer-mothers, are determined to rise above them, for the sake of the 78 orphans.

Oh yes, last Saturday, two new guardian parents came to see Hayward and Penny to ‘enroll’ with TCC five newly-orphaned kids who were left to their care.

Five more mouths to feed add to TCC’s burden, but it’s all right. Hayward and Penny have always believed God will provide.

 

(If you wish to sponsor the special Saturday lunch meal for the 83 orphans and abandoned kids, which costs at least K150, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. After buying all the ingredients, I do the cooking myself. One reader of this column, Mr John Whitfield, GM for Pacific Towing Ltd, Port Moresby, has bought at Brian Bell two huge cast aluminum cooking pots (30 liter-pot) to make it easy for us to cook the food. The specially-prepared Saturday food would give the kids a decent, nutritious lunch meal, which they don’t get on weekday feeding sessions. Weekday lunch meals consist only of bread and a thin slice of cheap meat loaf or black tuna meat or a combination of kaukau and boiled veggies as the budget for each meal is only limited to K40. So, nothing much when it comes to nutrition.)

Email the writer: jarahdz500@online.net.pg  or alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg

 

No interruption of ARV treatment in Papua New Guinea

Port Moresby – The Global Fund is ethically committed to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment to more than 6,000 people living with HIV in Papua New Guinea (PNG) at least till September 2012 despite the expiry of the current grant to the country.

Papua New Guinea’s existing HIV grant agreement, which provides for ARV treatment, expires on 31 August 2010 and a new grant application in 2009 was rejected by the Global Fund’s Board after it failed to receive a positive recommendation from an independent international panel of global health and development experts. As a result there have been concerns within Papua New Guinea regarding approximately 6,300 individuals currently receiving treatment.
The Global Fund wishes to allay the significant anxiety in Papua New Guinea among individuals receiving anti-retroviral therapy and their families and friends. The Global Fund has a clear policy regarding the continuation of life-extending critical treatment when a grant comes to an end. PNG is eligible to apply for up to two years of funding to pay for the products and services that are directly related to the continuation of treatment for existing patients.  Papua New Guinea’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) submitted the application for Continuity of Services (COS) on 15 February 2010.

The Global Fund will review the application closely during the next twelve weeks and request clarifications, particularly regarding the confirmed number of individuals registered and receiving ART.  While the Global Fund has an internal review process and the final decision is subject to Board approval, there is an ethical commitment to ensuring a steady flow of life-saving treatment. 

The final number of patients eligible will be based on the total number of patients receiving treatment and registered on 31 August 2010, when the current HIV/AIDS grant between NDOH and the Global Fund ends.  The Continuity of Services does not cover any new patients enrolling on ART after 31 August 2010.  The Global Fund understands, however, that the Government is committed to finding ways to treat new patients, including children, and stepping up prevention of parent to child transmission and continuing important counseling and testing services that it has been offering.

A two-member team from the Global Fund, led by Dr Swarup Sarkar, Asia Director, and Chrishan Thuraisingham, Fund Portfolio Manager, has been in Papua New Guinea since 14 February to work with the Government and Development Partners to review the need for additional services and co-financing from the Government of PNG in the HIV and AIDS response. 

 

The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organisations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.

Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has become the dominant financier of programmes to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with approved funding of US$ 18.4 billion for more than 600 programmes in 144 countries. To date, programmes supported by the Global Fund have saved 4.9 million lives through providing AIDS treatment for 2.5 million people, ant-ituberculosis treatment for 6 million people and the distribution of 104 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria.

 

Information on the work of the Global Fund is available at www.theglobalfund.org

K3.7 million from New Zealand to support smallholder farmers

The New Zealand Government will provide K3.7 million over the next two and a half years to the Smallholder Support Services Expansion Project (SSSEP) in Papua New Guinea.

 

This joint project between New Zealand and the Government of PNG aims to help improve the quality of life for smallholder farmers and their families by increasing their access to agriculture support services and technical assistance through the National Department of Agriculture and Livestock.

 

“More than 80% of PNG’s population lives in rural areas and they largely rely on agriculture for their livelihoods,” New Zealand’s High Commissioner to PNG Niels Holm said today.

 

“Many small farmers have limited access to technical knowledge to improve their agricultural practices and engage in markets.

 

“The assistance that the SSSEP provides is aimed at addressing this issue and contributing to increased household income and standards of living.” 

 

“The SSSEP builds on a pilot project in Eastern Highlands and Morobe provinces.

 

“The majority of the funding comes from the Government of Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand’s funding will help extend the programme to the Central and Simbu provinces, institutionalise the project’s processes and systems, and support involvement by women in the scheme.

 

“Strengthening and expanding the project will ensure that it continues in the years to come and reaches more people in PNG,” Mr Holm said.

 

New Zealand works to support sustainable development in PNG, and contributes to improving service delivery in health and education, and improving livelihood opportunities for rural people. 

 

In addition to supporting the SSSEP, the NZAID programme supports a number of other economic development initiatives which focus on the rural population.

 

African graft fight blocked by continent's Capones

From PAUL OATES

What lessons can the people of Papua New Guinea learn from this article I wonder? Does anything in this article sound terribly familiar? What can stop this happening?

Mr Ribadu's quoted comments should be read by all as a classic example of why, without transparency and accountability, corruption spreads like the disease it is.

In the next PNG general elections, what chance is there for any change to occur? People should be asking now for potential politicians to start declaring what their code of ethics are and what they will do to stamp out corruption, if elected.

African graft fight blocked by continent's Capones

George Fominyen
Reuters
Friday, February 5, 2010

DAKAR (Reuters) - Africa's fight against corruption is being blocked by gangsters at every level of administrations and the campaign is doomed to fail unless presidents themselves spearhead the battle, a top campaigner said.

Nuhu Ribadu, who convicted over 300 corrupt officials and recovered over $5 billion while leading Nigeria's anti-graft drive until falling out with the current administration, said the continent's leadership was hypocritical in its approach.

"If you have an Al Capone as Head of State, an Al Capone as governor of the central bank and Al Capones in every other institution, how can one succeed?" Ribadu said, referring to the American gangster who ran crime syndicates for several decades.

"Unfortunately that is the situation in most African countries today," Ribadu said in a telephone interview from Washington, where he is living in exile and working as a fellow at the Center for Global Development think-tank.

African nations -- from Mauritania in the west, Cameroon in the centre and Kenya to the east -- have launched anti-corruption campaigns, often under pressure from donors who blame underdevelopment on rampant mismanagement.

But Ribadu said such campaigns were riddled with hypocrisy and, citing numerous reports of corruption in police forces and the judiciary, he said it was impossible to "fight corruption with corruption".

"I have arrested an Inspector General of Police, prosecuted him, convicted him and recovered $150 million from him," said Ribadu, who was widely praised while he led Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from 2003 to 2007.

"A leader of the Nigerian police force, a policeman with $150 million. For God's sake how can such a police ever deliver?" he added.

Global anti-corruption group Transparency International says the combination of abundant natural resources, a history of conflict and unaccountable governments mean corruption remains one of the biggest challenges on the world's poorest continent.

The responsibility, Ribadu said, lies at the very top.

"Unless you have a president who understands the need to clean up, stop this wastage and do it honestly and courageously nothing else would work," he said.

"Fighting corruption is an extremely dangerous task. As long as that political backing and that political support is not there, those who are going to do it on the ground are exposed to all sorts of danger; and they are not going to survive it."

Ribadu, 49, said top officials often tried to bribe him but he succeeded in his work because he had the direct backing of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

After surviving several assassination attempts Ribadu said he fled Nigeria to live "a horrible life in exile".

He fell out of favour following the highly contested elections which ushered in a new administration headed by current President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The best thing the international community can do, Ribadu said, was to support the continent's young democracies.

"My hope and prayer is that we would end up with a political leadership that will enable us (Africans) achieve results."

Remain vigilant: Yakasa

THE public has been reminded to remain vigilant while in their homes and in their movement around the city while police are carry out operations to recapture seven of the remaining most wanted criminal still on the run and the more than 40 escapees who broke for freedom during separate jail breaks from Bomana last year, The National reports.

National Capital District metropolitan commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa yesterday issued the warning while commending the public for their assistance in the recapture of the five dangerous fugitives, including most wanted bank robber William Nanua Kapris. So far out of the 12 that escaped last month, four of whom were caught in the vicinity of the city in the past week since.

Oliver Ben was the first of the escapees to be caught. He was found in the hills near Sogeri on Jan 22.

When asked if police had any new and reliable leads to the whereabouts of suspects still on the run, Mr Yakasa said he could not comment more on the ongoing NCD police operations to hunt down remaining escapees.

Mr Yakasa referred The National to seek comments and the latest brief from NCD and Central province police commander chief Supt Awan Sete and NCD Police Operations commander Raphael Huafolo.

Attempts to get comments from both Mr Sete and Mr Huafolo were unsuccessful.

 

Australia approves 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea

PNG among 2,500 Pacific Islanders to work on Aussie farms

 

THE Australian government has approved 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea to work in farms in Australia this year, The National reports.

Australia foreign affairs minister Steven Smith, in his letter sent to his PNG couterpart Sam Abal last month, said the Papua New Guineans would be among the 2,500 Pacific Islanders allowed to work in farms in Australia.

Mr Abal told The National yesterday from Hoskins airport, East New Britain province, that a task force had been set up within his ministry to establish provincial coordinators who will work closely with the churches, police and community leaders to identify good, young energetic men and women to work in Australia.

“The recruitment will be conducted in all the 22 provinces in the country, including the new Jiwaka and Hela provinces.

“The provincial coordinators to be set up this year will be working closely with churches, police and community leaders to identify Grade 10 and 12 school leavers with good character and record, no criminal record, disciplined, law abiding and hard working citizens to go and work in Australia,” he said.

Mr Abal said: “We want good people to work and establish a good reputation to convince the Australians to recruit more Papua New Guineans.

“We cannot blindly send all the 650 workforce down because this is the number of people allowed by the Australian government but what is the demand of the farmers.

“This we have to find out first before the fruit pickers are sent to Australia.

“Those selected will go through some form of training before they are sent off to Australia.”

He said his department was responsible for the recruitment and that no else or agents were appointed to carry out the recruitment.

“When demand for fruit pickers is high, we will engage a private company to take charge of the whole operation after two years,” he said.

Mr Abal advised the people not to listen to private consultants, companies or individuals claiming to represent his office and collecting fees and promising them jobs in Australia.

 

Sex ring busted

Wewak police catch 20 women in the act

 

POLICE have busted a syndicate supplying young local and foreign women for prostitution near the Kaup Logging Company site in Angoram, East Sepik province.

A Wewak police team led by Provincial Police Commander Insp Charles Parinjo uncovered the syndicate in a raid on a house at the logging site over the weekend.

Police arrested nine women, all aged below 20, in compromising positions with the logging company workers.

The house is believed to have been used as a vice den.

Among the women held were two senior high school students in the province and a government officer from Port Moresby who was attached with the company to do clearance for logs.

Insp Parinjo said the women admitted during interrogation that they provided sexual favours to the foreigners and were paid between K200 and K800 per month.

The women were escorted to Wewak by police station on Monday where they are being investigated by police detectives.

Insp Parinjo said the female government officer was “deported” from Wewak the next day after her office in Port Moresby was notified of the offence she committed while staying at the site on official duty.

Insp Parinjo had also informed the relevant government agencies of the offence committed by the foreigners at the logging site and “we are pressuring them to deal with them diplomatically”.

Insp Parinjo said the successful raid confirmed suspicions by the public that locals and foreigners were providing sexual favors to foreigners for money.

“If this activity can happen in Kaup, it can also happen in other logging sites in East Sepik and nationwide,” he added.