RIP Wayne Bradley

From Lindsay on Facebook "Wayne Bradley passed away suddenly on Monday night. Wayne was customs officer in the early days' clearing ships into Loloho Wharf. He resided in the famous corner donga at Camp 6 and was one of the true legends of the mid 70's on Bougs. His father Clary was Safety Manager with BCL very early 70's. Wayne, you will be sorely missed old mate. Too young to be leaving us so early" All, Our condolences go to the Bradley family. What a terrible shock this is to Wayne`s endless circle of his many friends and acquaintances. I first came across Wayne and his father, Clarrie, in the early 70`s. They were both quite high profile in our busy construction community but for different reasons.  Clarrie was Rio`s authority on all matters OH&S.  He would cover more K`s in a day than the rest of us would do in a week.  Wayne was popular in the extreme. I can still see his image from those days, tall, lean of build, red “gras” and forever with a smile on his dial.  In those days Panguna and Kieta were lively places for the young, outgoing single. I know of this . . . . . . first hand! After his time at Loloho, Wayne was Burns Philp`s International Shipping Manager for Bougainville. On departing PNG he was employed as the Assistant Manager Environmental Services at the Mt Eliza Centre. He continued to pursue further studies in environmental management and OH&S.  For several years from 1990 he was the Environmental Services Manager at the Dandenong Hospital Southern Healthcare Network. He then returned to the tropics and for 10 years and was with Education Queensland Kind regards Davo  John@johndavidson.com.au http://johndavidsonbougainville.blogspot.com.au 0418 784 186

Phoebe Koles – a role model for women in business

Hailing from Haku (Lemanmanu) in North Bougainville and Siwai in the South Bougainville, Phoebe Koles grew up spending most of her childhood days in the northern region. This was her father’s place. Being the first born in a family of four (4), Phoebe had to perform up to expectations her parents had for her.

Phoebe finished her grade 10 at Hutzena High School (upgraded to a secondary school in 1997) and then, being amongst the top students, she was selected to attend Kerevat National High School in the East New Britain Province from 1998 to 1999.

Finishing from high school, she continued onto Commercial Training College where she completed in December 2006 and was recommended by CTC to continue on to a degree at the University of Technology. She wasn’t able to finish her studies because she was expecting her firstborn child. She had to quit studies and get back home until the delivery of her baby, however she didn’t lose the belief in herself to pursue her dreams.

Phoebe gave birth to her first child on the 12 June 2007 at Buka General Hospital. The arrival of the gorgeous baby girl was great delight and joy for the young mother, but quickly had to move back to Lae to be with her husband. Managing a family of her own was somewhat challenging for the young lady but still she strove to build on what she had started with her studies.

In 2009 she started working as a merchandiser with SVS (Super Value Stores) and was promoted to Marketing Secretary from 2010, but unfortunately, a move back to Buka during 2011 made her quit the fine job she had. She didn’t have much choice but to wait in hope of finding a new job as soon as possible as she needed to provide necessities for her family. Buka, at that time, was not a place where there were jobs for her, so she stayed home for a year looking for a new job.

While she waited though she set up a market stall for herself on the road side next to their house where she would sell ice-blocks, spears and betel nut. Whilst marketing, she had her eyes and ears open for job vacancies in regards to her specified field of work.

Luckily, in November 2013, she started working with National Development Bank (NDB) as an Admin Officer. Apparently her efforts put into the field of work she was in charge of had her promoted to Women in Business Officer at Buka Branch in April 2015.

Today, Phoebe Wamo Koles is a remarkable woman with outstanding work in her job and is well known and liked in the region knows her. There are lots of people from all around the region who have come for loans from NDB and with her help have set up businesses.

Being in charge of Women In Business in the National Development Bank she aims to help motivate Bougainvillian women do business rather than putting men as top shots all the time.

She plans on finishing her studies and getting a degree once she feels the time is right for her. She hasn’t ever given up on herself in pursuing her dreams.

For me, she is a great role model for us young Bougainvillian women.

(Source:  http://www.bougainville24.com/bougainville-aid/phoebe-koles-a-role-model-for-women-in-business/  )

Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia

All,

Every day someone from our network is doing good around the needs of our very special Bougainville - based friends. With the war`s 10,000 + casualties there is no need to dwell on the measurement and volume of this need. Having spent 361 days serving on the front line in a theatre of war I have some inkling as to their suffering.  I am astounded that, as individuals and given the dearth of their personal possessions, the Bougainville people are, so quickly, coming to terms with their dreadful losses. There is tremendous optimism across the region.  While we should always push back to encourage the people to do more for themselves, we also must be there to offer assistance when life becomes completely impossible.  At some of the remote medical and education centres in Central and Southern Bougainville the term, “impossible” hardly seems adequate to describe their difficulties and their shortages.

A couple of those “someones” are Keith and Carole Sherwood. They have gathered surplus medical stores from the Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital and other Sunshine Coast medical facilities, see attached. Their second batch of goodies has just been dropped at the Rotary, Donations in Kind store, in Durack. We are hopeful that, within a few weeks, they will be packed out by Veronica and her BBCG (Brisbane Bougainville Community Group) and then the Rotary Clubs of Bribie Island and Pine Rivers will complete the documentation. George (former DG) and Mary Grant, from Bribie have made a huge contribution to these works.

We are marvelling at our good fortune in finding that the son of Keith and Carol, Scott Sherwood is employed at the St Andrews hospital in Brisbane. Scott has also commenced the gathering of medical materials for this wonderful cause.

The material sitting on the table, see below, is some of the first batch of materials delivered by Keith. Prior to shipment they were closely examined by our Brisbane in-house medical authority, Joan Daniels. Joan liaises closely with Ann Green and others from the Bougainville medical fraternity.  With some of our clients Veronica has become the main point of contact.  It is of critical importance that no material reaches our containers that cannot be readily utilized at our hospitals and clinics.

We thank the Editor of Bougainville 24, Ben Jackson for his article (see below) .  This sort of publicity is of invaluable assistance to us as we spread the word.

Regards

Davo

john@johndavidson.com.au
0418 784 186 

Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia 

As Bougainville continues to rebuild, the Arawa District Health Centre has been fortunate to receive a donation from a Rotary group from Brisbane, Australia.

The delivery included children’s toys and dolls, hospital beds, bed sheets, pillow cases and first aid kits.

The donation from Brisbane was arranged by an Australian friend, Mr John Davidson, and reached the shores of Bougainville. During his follow-up visit to Arawa at the start of May he was warmly welcomed by the Health Centre staff.

While Speaking to a group of staff Mr Davidson stated that all the new additions Centre’s itinerary came with the support of the Sunshine Coast Hospital and the Bougainville community in Brisbane.

He said that getting all the items together and bringing them to Bougainville a challenging task but was made easier with the help of Rotary.

Senior Medical Officer, Dr Joe Vilosi, gratefully thanked Mr John Davidson for his effective arrangement skills.

Dr Vilosi further stated that there is a need to identify what the hospital really needs.

He also thanked the Sunshine Coast Hospital in Australia for the donation.

Source : http://www.bougainville24.com/bougainville-aid/arawa-health-centre-receives-donation-from-australia/

Sir Mick Curtain

From: John Feltham

Sent: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 4:28 PMTo: John DavidsonSubject: Sir Mick Curtain., KBE.,

G'day Folks,

Yesterday my wife and I together with one of our daughters [who works for CB], went to his funeral here in Townsville.

The Memorial Service was held at St Joseph’s Church on Ross River Road. The building was overflowing with people.

The PNG PM, Peter O’Neil was there with several of his Ministers. I saw the Federal MP, Bob Katter and a few other folk that I know.

http://news.pngfacts.com/2016/09/png-pm-peter-oneill-pay-homage-to-sir.html

I don’t recall if I ever met Sir Mick, but I did walk through ‘his’ tunnel at Ok Tedi!  :-)

It was he who hired my daughter.

John Feltham

ooroo