Giving to the Sepik, on ANZAC Day

There were a couple of thousand of us at the dawn service this morning here in Yeppoon to commemorate ANZAC day – when Australian and New Zealand troops landed in Gallipoli one fateful morning in 1915.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent the last two days walking the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea to commemorate the World War II battle between Japanese and Allied forces, when Papuans fought alongside Australians from July through until November 1942.

Japan had secured the northern coast of Papua, and their objective was to capture Port Moresby from which they could more easily attack the Australian mainland and shipping in the Pacific.    Of course, Japan had already attacked Darwin, that was on 19^th February 1942.  In that air raid just a few days after the fall of Singapore,  Japan dropped more bombs on Darwin, killed more civilians in Darwin, and sank more ships in Darwin than they did in Pearl Harbour.

Papua New Guinea was important to us during World War II because geography matters.   And it still does.

Geography matters, and people matter.

My son-in-law Christian Wright worked in Papua New Guinea in 2018, seeking to improve maternal and child health with a charity organisation called Living Child.  Living Child has been in the region for just over a decade and in that time, working alongside local health workers and community stakeholders, have managed to bring maternal mortality deaths in the villages to just about none.

Christian has just returned to the East Sepik area he worked years ago, following terrible flooding and an earthquake that occurred there late March, a month ago.   He didn’t forget the people when they asked for his help, again.

He worked as an emergency and disaster nurse, then a midwife, and has significant experienced and training in disaster relief, especially with tropical medicine.

He cares very much about the work of Living Child Inc. and the people of Papua New Guinea.

It is the communities this organisation supports in the East Sepik that have been most affected by the recent natural disasters.

Christian is very grateful to everyone who has already donated – remember I provided information some few weeks ago.

It is important we remember the fallen on ANZAC day.

There is perhaps also opportunity to remember those in need now to our immediate north, from communities that have helped us in the past.

Christian has gone as an Australian, to where there is an immediate need, to be with a community to our north in need.

You can support this commitment by donating to the Living Child GoFundMe appeal, CLICK HERE.

There is also the opportunity to make a direct tax deductible donation, CLICK HERE.

Thanks for your generosity.