News

Thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors and donors who without your help we could not do all our good work. Everyone stay safe!!!

#caringforkiriwina, #benevolentsociety, #charity, #kiriwina, #trobriandislands, #papuanewguinea, #australia, #mothersandbabies, #cleanwater, #birthingkits, #dignitykits, #foodsecurity, #education, #panadol, #covidsafety

This will put a smile on your dial in lockdown! Just look at those fabulous outfits!

There were 225 gardeners. The two top gardeners harvested and heaped their yams and measured over 5 arm spans. All the 225 gardeners were appreciated for their hard work.

The yam house was filled up showing a good sign of harvest. The yams will be store for future distribution and consumption.

Photo 1: showing the Food Security Program Committee members. Photo 2: CFK In-Country Manager Toks handing over a food security prize

#foodsecurity, #caringforkiriwina, #charity, #benevolentsociety

Another COVID Lockdown week… another baby image to add cheer to your week. This week’s Baby has been delivered by the CFK Kavataria Village Birth Attendants :).

We are all feeling very relieved that our in-country manager Toks has made it back after a grueling trip back from Kiriwina, unfortunately, due to the indefinite closure of Losuia airport. The runway again is in disrepair and not fit for aircraft landing and take off, he had to travel to Alotau by boat for two days travelling through extremely rough weather.

Happy you are back safe and sound!

We are presently packaging birthing kits, panadol and pens and pencils to send over asap :).

#mothersandbabies, #charity, #benevolentsociety, #caringforkiriwina, #trobriandislands, #papuanewguinea.

An image to add cheer to your COVID lockdown week. Baby delivered by the CFK Mulosaida Village Birth Attendants :).

#mothersandbabies, #charity, #benevolentsociety, #caringforkiriwina, #trobriandislands, #papuanewguinea.

Our in country manager, Toks Bwaina, is on Kiriwina to report on the progress of our CFK projects.

As part of the CFK food security initiative, Toks hosts a celebration at the conclusion of the yam harvest period, awarding of the best yam gardeners with prizes and supervises the distribution and storage of yams into the yam houses for future use.

Wishing we could be there with you at this wonderful time of the year!

Please stay COVID safe!!

#charity, #education, #mothersandbabies, #foodsecurity, #cleanwater

Our In-country manager is planning a reporting trip over to Kiriwina on the 13th July to deliver and distribute birthing kits, pens, school bags, baby knitting and to report on the progress of the Caring for Kiriwina Scholarship students. These students generally start their scholarship in year 10, so if you would like to continue to sponsor your child please donate for years 11 and 12.

Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors and donors for your continued generosity… your continued support is essential. 🙌

#charity, #caringforkiriwina, #mothers, #babies, #birthingkits, #cleanwater, #education, #foodsecurity

June 2021

e-NEWS CFK progress June 2021

Dear friend of CFK,

With 7 projects on the go… Caring for Kiriwina (CFK) has been helping the women and children on Kiriwina for many years. Please give generously this end of financial year to help support this ongoing work. 

Kiriwina VBA’s receiving their lanterns, batteries, facemasks, gloves, pens and other PPE’s.

• Birth Supplies/Birthing Training: Supporting our 275 Village Birth Attendants and the only medical centre on the Island, Losuia Health centre, supplying Birthing Kits, Training, lights, Birth registration booklets, Mobiles phones and many other essential items.

Kiriwina Secondary School (KSS) female students receiving their dignity kits.

• Dignity Kits:  UNICEF says that adolescent girls in school suffer the most when they are menstruating.  Many schools report absenteeism among adolescent girls due to a lack of clean, private changing rooms and without access to soap, water and sanitary pads. Some stay away from school for a few days. CFK provides the women and girls on Kiriwina with dignity kits that contain two reusable menstrual pads, two underpants, two soaps and a bag to store them in. CFK’s constant supply of Dignity Kits has increased female participation rates.

CFK sponsored students with the teacher, Mr Arnold Kalu (in green color T-shirt and long blue pants) who is coordinating CFK assistance at KSS. Only 12 out of 19 students were available when this photo was taken. 

• School Education: Initiative 1: Educational materials. The support from CFK has allowed all the schools on Kiriwina to sit their yearly exams. Due to continual government absence of supply, CFK has donated and continues to supply thousands of pens and pencils to all the schools on Kiriwina.
  Initiative  2: CFK School Fee Scholarship Program. CFK administers the CFK School Fee Scholarship program which pays for the mandatory High school fees for extremely vulnerable students.
  Initiative 3: Translation of readers into Kiriwinan. CFK is also working on producing a primer (first textbook) for teaching of reading in the Kiriwinan language, an alphabet book and a basal reader. It is incredibly important for the children to be literate in their own language.

Kavataria pump in operation. Koega advised that we need to replace the pipe as soon as possible as the current pipe is rotting away to avoid rust mixing with water.

• Clean Drinking Water: We have supplied and maintained four water pumps on Kiriwina with an aim of distributing many more Island wide. These pumps currently supply the main village, 2 remote villages and the Kiriwina Secondary School with clean drinking water. Kiriwina Island is flat, with no rivers and no naturally-occurring fresh drinking water. While the underground water table is easily accessed as it is shallow, it is of brackish quality and frequently not potable, although suitable for bathing (and is so used for the 55,000 Kiriwina inhabitants). The village toilets and household rubbish from about 80 villages contaminate it further. Our pumps allow access to deeper, cleaner water suitable for drinking. Mr Koega, a Kiriwinan plumber, installs and maintains the pumps for CFK.

Koega and team fixing the  Kiriwina Secondary School girls and boys water pumps.

All of the pumps has been fixed and are currently working, however they require constant maintenance.

• Health and Hygiene/COVID-19 supplies: The pandemic continues to negatively impact the people of Kiriwina. CFK sends a constant supply of masks, gloves, sanitisers, and soaps to the medical centre.

Losuia Health Centre nurses Raymond and Linnesse receiving CFK donations.

Here is a gallery of x 30 photos of the memorial service that happened at the same time/day on Kiriwina as the funeral service in Australia for the late Rev. Dr. Ralph Lawton.

As mentioned in our recent e-news the Memorial Service was held on Kiriwina from 11am 27th April 2021 and was attended by a huge crowd of people from all over Kiriwina including sister churches. Due to a large number of people, the service was conducted at the small field where the Bible Dedication celebrations were held in 2012. Many people cried when the Biography of late Rev. Dr. Ralph Lawton was read. Representatives of Kiriwina Bible Translation Committee, VBA’s, Catholic and United Church officials gave their Tributes about the Life of Rev Dr Ralph Lawton. All who attended the Memorial Service dressed in black and white. The VBA’s came in with their VBA uniforms. It was a great memorial service concluded with feasting and celebrations the Kiriwinan way. There was lot of food distributed, the people ate and took food home.

We at CFK are very proud that the late Rev. Dr. Ralph Lawton who was further honored with:

The Church New Building at Mulosaida Village was Officially declared that the Building will be named as “Rev. Dr. Ralph Lawton Memorial Church”. The church will be officially opened and dedicated in July 2021.
and…

The Mission Station at Oyabia, was renamed as “IYUPALILAGUYAU LOTONI”.

It was indeed a great and a memorable memorial service. THANK YOU AGAIN KIRIWINA!!!!