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 the
benevolences of Ok Tedi Development Foundation in light of some of the recent
criticism 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 of
those long-lost health and education services they have been promising since
BHP left. Apparently, as OTML CEO Nigel Parker explained to the reporter,
Jemima Garrett, when Inmet, the last foreign investor pulled out in 2011, OTDF
was 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 in
the social needs of Western Province people, despite the original mandate of
the 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 to
better implement these services, and save the Fund more money.
In fact, if you look at he OTDF website you will find it seeks your
support:
"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 those
directly in need of your support. - We visit PNG homes and work with the locals to understand what improvements they
really 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 real
changes.
http://www.otdfpng.org/getinvolved
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 the
South Fly river system and nothing is being done about it by the Ok Tedi
Development Foundation (OTDF).
The OTDF is the organisation responsible for the implementation
and delivery of impact projects along the Fly River and the mine villages in
the Western Province.
This claim stems from a general health investigation report for
the Suki Fly Gogo and Manawate regions from April 24 to May 4 this year. The
report 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 community
development and acting capacity project program manager for the women’s and
children program, Bill Rua, after a request from the Suki Fly Gogo and Manavete
women’s Association executive members
Saridu Saudi , Nanacy Isikin, Nareme Makai and Lynette Ogari.
Mr Rua then presented the report to OTDF chief executive officer
Ian Middleton and executive manager Alison Tammy. Since then both have
allegedly not acted upon the report.
Mrs Makai, the women’s and children’s
representative in the Manawate Trust yesterday confirmed that numerous women
and children have died since this report was given four months ago.
“We have been patiently waiting for OTDF to act upon the report
and bring the medical assessment team to conform the reports. Now we are forced
to seek Government support, but due to lack of proper medical services in the
region we are being sent to Kiunga,” she added.
The process to get to Kiunga is too costly and OTDF do not
supporting in funding for logistic support as well. What can we do now? She
asked.
The request for immediate attention to their medical needs comes
off the back of daily occurrences reports of abnormal bleeding from young
women, 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 usually
start from a scratch.
This is also a normal occurrence for water users of the Fly River which
flows from the Ok Tedi Mine down to the mouth of the river. This report covers
18 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 hours
of approximately 4-5 hours questioning of all aspect of diseases from personal
hygiene, family planning, general health service, diet, safe water and other
related 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 been
deteriorating for so long and all key health indicators have fallen behind the
national average. According to this investigation, many people have died from
curable diseases, health facilities are at an appalling state, inconsistency of
drugs supply, staff absenteeism, women die of loss of blood from abnormal
bleeding and half the children under the age of 1 receive their immunization
vaccines.
Ends…
very nice site loveing article good job i like this blog,
Posted by: Jacquie Collins | February 16, 2013 at 12:51 AM