Charity golf aids children in need

The National Weekender
CHARITY

By JAMIE HARO
KUMUL Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) has delivered yet again another successful charity golf event at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Course to raise funds to support six Out-of-Home Care Centres in PNG.
KPHL Executive General Manager-External Affairs Luke Liria said a total of 44 teams registered for the annual event earlier this month to compete. The one-day event included a few donations and a charity auction to support a worthy cause.
“We continue to come forward and support this. Individually, we cannot reach out but coming together gives us a better way to reach out to the charities and help the people that desire to utilise these services,” Liria said.
He said the objective has been about raising funds to support underprivileged kids that are living in the society through partnership with the National Office of Child and Family Services and its director Simon Yanis.
“Mr Yanis and his staff are the main people that ensure these home care centres are safe. They work the process, certify the institutions and ensure these homes receive all they could to support kids. This year marks KPHL’s second year supporting and working with the organisation.”
Liria said while to many, poverty was a problem in PNG, there was still a way to care for those who are unfortunate by giving them care and support they need.
“These are the families that we are trying to reach out to by working with the director and his team to help support the institutions that are really committed to supporting these underprivileged kids.”
Liria said this golf challenge started in 2018 and has grown each year with funds raised up to over K200,000 for the home care centres.
“Last year’s (2022) event, we raised K168,000 supporting the six care centres, three in NCD, two in Western Highlands and one in Southern Highlands.
“These care centers are registered and licensed by the PNG government through the National Office of Child and Family Services and we have decided to support this six organisations again through funds raised this year.”
While acknowledging the teams turning up for the charity event, Liria also confirmed that they would be working closely with the government institution to reach out to centres in the Northern and New Guinea Islands regions subject to funding.
“We will also look at Northern and New Guinea Islands region, but it depends on funding. We’d really like to help. We will work with the director and his office and clear some of the charities in Northern Province, New Guinea Islands, and Northern Region as well. We look forward to your (organisations) support next year.”
Liria urged government institutions and local business houses to continue their support in the annual event.
Meanwhile, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion and Huon Gulf MP Jason Peter said such charitable event would go a long way in generating much needed assistance for underprivileged kids who are future leaders of PNG.
“This is a good event and it’s for a good cause. I was also one of those unfortunate to live on the streets of Lae and grew up to be here now. Reflecting to my younger days, I grew up in a problematic home and because of the culture that we have, I went from home to home until a family from Southern Highlands took me in and put me through education that brought me this far.”
Whilst sharing his testimony, Peter said taking care of the underprivileged kids was taking care of future leaders of this nation and he was a living proof of that.
“Personally it was fortunate for me to become a leader coming from that background where once I grew up on the streets and it was for those who have a good heart to serve and help others that become a part of this plan.
“And I’d like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has supported this event to support more centres taking care of future leaders of our country,” he added.
Statistics on child development and welfare
Since 2009 the PNG Government has been actively integrating child and development concerned to the major national development plans and strategies including the recent 2050 development roadmap.
The 2010-2030 development strategy plan, the DSP, and various medium-term development plans over the past two decades, we have undertaken vital policy and legislative reform to align our national policies and laws with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Children.
Empowered by the Lukautim Pikinini Act (LPA), the National Office of the Child and Family Services is tasked with creating and implementing policies and programs aimed at safeguarding children from abuse, neglect and exploitation, in line with the mandate to evaluate the quality of in and out of home care.
Studies revealed that children in the care centres range in age from three to 18 years, with some as old as 30. A significant number of these children are girls, underscoring their increased vulverability to abuse, exploitation and negligence.
Moreover, many of the children in the centres come from the Southern region and the Momase region.
Widespread child abuse, neglect, and exploitation shows how common these issues have become in recent years throughout the country.
The primary factors leading to children being placed in home care centres are loss of parents or orphanhood, parental or community neglect, divorce resulting in single parenthood and displacement by both man-made and natural disasters and emergencies.
The study has outlined several recommendations for intervention to alleviate the difficulties faced by vulnerable children in out-of-home care centres. These include:

  • Establishing a database system for monitoring of our out-of-care home centres;
  • Development of strategies for the Government to establish child and family service support centers as transitional care points;
  • Support for NGOs, organisations involved setting up out-of-home care centres and child ,and family support centres in regional cities and provincial capitals; and
  • Strategies to address the root cause leading to children’s placement in and re-education from out-of-home care centres.