Fundraisers for Indonesia and PNG

Appeals to assist natural disaster recovery efforts in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea can be supported by the Flinders University community.

For Indonesia, all are invited to the end-of-semester concert at the Pendopo Javanese cultural pavilion at Flinders University on Saturday 20 October, commencing 6:30pm.

The Gamelan Sekar Laras ensemble will perform along with special guests from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI Yogyakarta). Gold coin donations will be taken for the central Sulawesi family of alumni Mukrimin.

This month, friends of Indonesia also supported a charity concert to raise money for earthquake-affected areas of Indonesia, including Lombok and Palu.

Other donations can be directed to the INDOPEDULI Adelaide appeal at BSB 065140 Account 10260576. INDOPEDULI Adelaide is a charity group which was established by Indonesian communities in Adelaide.

In Papua New Guinea, medical goods have been salvaged from Adelaide’s old Royal Adelaide Hospital and are bound for earthquake-ravaged areas of the PNG Highlands, with a shipping container due to arrive at Lae Port on 19 October. However transport from the port to rural communities in need remains a challenge.

Driven by Shila Yukuli Paia – a Flinders University Public Health and International Development Graduate and current PhD student – the 20ft container will contain a combination of donated medical supplies from the RAH, school supplies and other items to assist PNG earthquake victims.

Payment for the shipment has been sponsored by the South Australian Intensive Care Association, The Uniting Church at Broadview and through Ms Paia’s own fundraising activities. However, once the supplies are docked, a serious problem looms to ensure their timely arrival in Hela Province.

“If we don’t have a reliable 4WD at the port, all these supplies will be stalled in the container and will not reach the remote schools, health facilities and families impacted by the earthquake,” says Ms Paia.

“I am racing to raise $10,000 in the next 10 days to purchase our own 4WD vehicle. If we have 100 people donating $100 each, we will reach the target.”

Details about the fundraising project and donations can be made online at

https://chuffed.org/project/soilchild-final-10-of-delivering-supplies-to-remote-communities

The violent earthquake that rocked Papua New Guinea in early March – causing devastating mud slides that trapped many communities in remote mountain areas, including Hela – highlighted the desperate need that PNG has for medical supplies,

Equipment that Ms Paia obtained from the decommissioned RAH will help to cover critical shortfalls in medical supplies, and provide such valuable apparatus as ultrasounds to theatre and surgical goods – assisting in everything from childbirth to better immunisation and basic primary health care.

“Every piece that has been made available from the old RAH will be useful, including a surgical microscope,” she says.

Beyond organising and overseeing the delivery of these supplies, Ms Paia has also created the SoilChild education project to break inter-generational poverty in rural Papua New Guinea.

Its first task will be the completion of a library and contemporary classroom with eight rooms for Dauli Demo Primary School, in Hela Province. Shipment of laptops, books, shelves and desks for the new library ready for official opening in November 2018.

Ms Paia intends this to be a pilot project for other SoilChild education projects, but to enable this work to continue, she is seeking funds to fill a second container with library resources and more medical supplies that are currently being stored in a Hackham warehouse, provided by SA-based charity organisation Kokoda Angels.

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