I’m confused by this Post Courier caption and photo last week. Didn’t the Trust beneficiaries/landowners pay for the Fly Warrior themselves? Why is this touted as charity from OTDF? I suggest Middleton himself take the ship on his fly in-outs from Cairns. That’ll save a lot more money.
CEO of OTDF and Western Province Governor, Mr Ati Wobiro, dancing with villagers at Obo Station in Middle Fly on Saturday after launching the MV Fly Warrior. The vessel will help bring their project materials from Port Moresby to their jetty free of charge. Photo: OTDF Public Relations
A recent Australian reporter was brought up to Western Province to report on thebenevolences of Ok Tedi Development Foundation in light of some of the recentcriticism it has received. After ten years of ‘research,’ according to Middleton at this year’s Mining Conference in Sydney, OPTDF is now finally able to deliver some ofthose long-lost health and education services they have been promising sinceBHP left. Apparently, as OTML CEO Nigel Parker explained to the reporter,Jemima Garrett, when Inmet, the last foreign investor pulled out in 2011, OTDFwas finally free from commercial mandates and could concentrate on its social responsibilities.
NIGEL PARKER: It's very much an interesting position because we now have a full social mandate. When BHP exited we still had Inmet as an 18 per cent shareholder and there was a mix of the commercial mandate with social mandate. Inmet were very good in the social mandate side of it but now Inmet has exited it is full social mandate so everything we do has a focus on the Papua New Guinean people, what we can deliver to the economy, to the peoples of the Western Province, and of course to a wider group of people that are not just impacted by the mine.
Well why didn’t you say so before? INMET was holding you back from investing inthe social needs of Western Province people, despite the original mandate ofthe Trust. And now that it can turn its attention to buying planes and ships and other big ticket items ‘for the Western Province people’ , and publicize this as charity, it can also divert unknown amounts from this fund to spend on PR campaigns that just might drown out the abysmal reports emerging from people on the ground in Western.
OTDF: A charity that needs your support!
Better yet, OTDF has begun to partner with other donor organizations tobetter implement these services, and save the Fund more money.
In fact, if you look at he OTDF website you will find it seeks yoursupport:
"Get involved! Join us in helping PNG! We will soon have an online facility to allow you to donate, volunteer, or become a partner! “
Why support OTDF?
As a not for profit charity, all donations go to improving the lives of thosedirectly in need of your support.
We visit PNG homes and work with the locals to understand what improvements theyreally need.
How do we do it? Many people and organisations volunteer their support.
Our team are local Papua New Guineans with experience and a passion for making realchanges.
[www.otdfpng.org]
Thank god there's a way for us to volunteer. 59% of our donations will go to infrastructure! 16% to other---would that include Middleton's pay package? 4% to livelihood development! ---that would be restoring the subsistence base destroyed by miles of die-back from the mine tailings?
I know I'm glad that, considering the low levels of investment thus far (as reflected in this recent report on Lower Fly health services, below), there will be no need to actually tap the hundreds of millions of kina in that Singaporean Trust account to provide these services. Instead, that money can be saved for a rainy day, or to buy more big ticket planes and boats.
WOMEN are dying from abnormal bleeding along the banks of theSouth Fly river system and nothing is being done about it by the Ok TediDevelopment Foundation (OTDF).
The OTDF is the organisation responsible for the implementationand delivery of impact projects along the Fly River and the mine villages inthe Western Province.
This claim stems from a general health investigation report forthe Suki Fly Gogo and Manawate regions from April 24 to May 4 this year. Thereport was done by Michael Gen (field supervisor for capacity building project)and James Yore (monitoring and evaluation officer for OTDF).
The report was presented to the then team leader for communitydevelopment and acting capacity project program manager for the women’s andchildren program, Bill Rua, after a request from the Suki Fly Gogo and Manavetewomen’s Association executive members Saridu Saudi , Nanacy Isikin, Nareme Makai and Lynette Ogari.
Mr Rua then presented the report to OTDF chief executive officerIan Middleton and executive manager Alison Tammy. Since then both haveallegedly not acted upon the report.
Mrs Makai, the women’s and children’srepresentative in the Manawate Trust yesterday confirmed that numerous womenand children have died since this report was given four months ago.
“We have been patiently waiting for OTDF to act upon the reportand bring the medical assessment team to conform the reports. Now we are forcedto seek Government support, but due to lack of proper medical services in theregion we are being sent to Kiunga,” she added.
The process to get to Kiunga is too costly and OTDF do notsupporting in funding for logistic support as well. What can we do now? Sheasked.
The request for immediate attention to their medical needs comesoff the back of daily occurrences reports of abnormal bleeding from youngwomen, plus abnormal growths or lumps on babies, children, young women and men.
This includes what is being described as ‘burnt out looking sores’or ulcers that are prevalent amongst users of the river. The ulcers usuallystart from a scratch.
This is also a normal occurrence for water users of the Fly River whichflows from the Ok Tedi Mine down to the mouth of the river. This report covers18 villages in Suki and 17 villages in the Manawate region.
The total population of the Continuation Mine Community Agreement(CMCA) region is in the region of 70,000.
The methods used in the investigation were focused group discussion with long hoursof approximately 4-5 hours questioning of all aspect of diseases from personalhygiene, family planning, general health service, diet, safe water and otherrelated diseases. The three villages visited from Manewete region were Teapopo,Wariobodoro and Kea while six villages (Pukaduka 1, Kautru, Kiru, Riti,Pukaduka2, and Eniawa) from Suki were visited for this assessment.
The findings shows that health services throughout these regions have beendeteriorating for so long and all key health indicators have fallen behind thenational average. According to this investigation, many people have died fromcurable diseases, health facilities are at an appalling state, inconsistency ofdrugs supply, staff absenteeism, women die of loss of blood from abnormalbleeding and half the children under the age of 1 receive their immunizationvaccines.
Ends…
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