CFK May 2023 E-Newsletter

e-NEWS Caring For Kiriwina – Kamatokisi Kiriwina!
May 2023

Dear ,

After the recent unrest in Kiriwina, a real celebration of love and life was called for, and that is precisely what we got at the inaugural ‘Lawton Day’ celebrations held on the 21^st of April 2023, combined with a CFK reporting trip.

We are incredibly pleased to report that although we have not been able to visit Kiriwina for 3.5 years to run our annual VBA training events due to COVID and the lack of flights to Kiriwina, the training that we had managed to put in place before COVID and the other CFK projects have continued to grow and flourish due to incredible teamwork and tenacity of the Kiriwinan people and our wonderful sponsors and donors.

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At the invitation of Bishop Agabu Entonio and the PNG United Church, a small group of dim dims from Australia, including all three of their children and families, recently attended the memorial and burial service of Rev Dr Ralph “Iyupalilaguyau Lotoni” and Marama Margaret Lawton, where their ashes were interred in a new memorial on Oyabia Station. Images and videos cannot truly convey these amazing celebrations, sights, sounds and emotions. The Kiriwinans really know how to celebrate life, and a sample of what we have managed to record of the proceedings can be found on the CFK website as well as a piece written by one of our intrepid life travellers and best friends, Daydd Kelly. As we have grown to expect from Daydd, he has penned a unique perspective of the events he called Chairing for Kiriwina, to view CLICK HERE. We are in the process of creating a video of the event, which will be posted once completed :).

We also held productive meetings with VBA representatives to follow up on progress and discuss plans for our next training sessions, which we hope to run later in the year.

On this recent trip, Dr. Jerry Wong chats with our fantastic CFK VBA team to find out the specific training needs.

Please donate to the next VBA Training trip

Head VBA Ruth and senior VBA Edith take delivery of all the donated birthing kits and hand-knitted and hand-sewn baby clothes from our donors at the Belrose Country Club Knitters and St Swithuns Church in Pymble. We have recently sent over another 40 solar lanterns, uniform material, and more birthing kits for the VBAs. Thank you, all you wonderful donors, for all your kindness and generosity!