Global award will help Simbu kids
The founder of Papua New Guinea’s Simbu Children Foundation (SCF) has been honoured with a World of Children Award.
As Paradise was going to press, Jimmy Drekore was preparing to travel to New York to accept the World of Children health award, which recognises individuals making extraordinary contributions to children through the fields of health, medicine, or the sciences.
The award is one of several given out by the World of Children each year and carries with it a $US50,000 grant over three years for SCF.
The awards are sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize for child advocacy.
Drekore founded SCF in 2005 and now has more than 1000 volunteers (there are no paid staff) helping deliver education and medical treatment to sick and disadvantaged children in the Simbu Province.
Among its activities, the charity funds airfares, public transport and medical costs for sick village children to travel to city and overseas hospitals for medical tests, treatment or operations that are unavailable locally. SCF also funds the travel costs for a parent or guardian.
“We are not unique, the experience of children in Simbu is being experienced by children in villages all over Papua New Guinea,” Drekore says.
SCF also sources materials and medical equipment for institutions in the Simbu Province, including the Sir Joseph Nombri Memorial Hospital in Kundiawa and the Irugl Mother of Life Orphanage at the foot of Mount Wilhelm.
The World of Children Award has handed out $US8 million in cash grants since 1998.
See simbuchildrenfoundation. org; worldofchildren.org. ■