Lae helps Aussie bushfire victims

Papua New Guinea was all over the Australian news recently for its incredible generosity to the bushfireaffected community of Merimbula on the New South Wales east coast.

“I thought there might be anything from a couple of hundred dollars to AU$1000. But I was wildly wrong,” Andy Thorp from the local Rotary Club told ABC News. The donation from Lae ended up at over AU$60,000. Showing some incredible local leadership and commitment, the donation was organised by Sheila Harou in Lae. After seeing the horrific bushfires that ravaged Australia in January, she started a charity appeal that began with young people pushing wheelbarrows around the streets of Lae seeking donations, and eventually included a number of local organisations.

And now the PNG flag proudly flies in the town of Merimbula as a permanent reminder of the incredible generosity of Lae.