My name is Maria
By BIG PAT
THE cheek to cheek smile is infectious. The big wide eyes bore pleadingly deep into your heart. Decked out in a dirty little blue sweater with ‘USA’ written over the front, you cannot help but smile along with this little angel of the mountain.
But the warmth of that picture, that sweet little face that melts your heart, that child like innocence that leaps out at you, belies the real world of little Maria Ormi.
As I starred into her eyes, my tears welled as my mind transported me back to another time, another chapter in my life, when a young vulnerable life like this depended on the best of my fatherly love.
Maria Ormi is eight years old. Her home is Irugl, a scattering of homely dwellings at the headwaters of the swift flowing, cool Wara Simbu.
This charity home stands in the shadow of the mighty Mount Wilhelm in Simbu Province.
I came to know Maria through the Simbu Children Foundation network. The SCF is another success NGO story best left to my pal, the bush poet, Jimmy Drex to tell.
In short, SCF assists the unfortunate children of Simbu, to give them optimism and a chance to survive life’s rugged challenges, and a hope to succeed.
The SCF membership is spread far and wide around the globe among like minded Simbus and is open to all Papua New Guineans.
As a member, I receive a monthly newsletter, and the January issue featured a place no-one really knows about, Irugl, an outpost off the beaten track to the world famous Mount Wilhelm.
In Simbu, it is cold. Up Mount Wilhelm, it gets colder. But in Irugl, it is warm and cosy.
These warmth and cosiness was shaped by a dying wish. On her deathbed somewhere in Europe, a Simbu woman named Agatha whispered her last will into the grief stricken ears of her husband Martin van der Palen.
The van der Palens had spent a lifetime in Simbu as lay missionaries, well before PNG gained Independence in 1975. They knew the language and the place by heart.
The cool misty air reminded them of their homeland, the sweet potato (kaukau) sustained them but it was the misery and hardship of the simple people, especially the little children they came to meet, that prolonged their heart’s batteries.
As she lay dying, Agatha van der Palen willed upon her husband, with her last rasping breaths, to build a shelter for the sick, the oppressed, the orphaned and the homeless back in the land she had called her real home, Simbu.
In March 2003, with funding from considerate friends back in Europe, and the assistance of the local people led by current care centre manager Martin Tine, the Irugl Care Centre was opened.
It is currently home to over 30 plus disadvantaged young people ranging from as young as 6 to adults over 30, all from Kelsugl area and the Gembogl Station.
All the school age children are attending elementary, community, secondary and technical schools but with no parental support or government subsidy, they have to work extra hard to raise their school fees.
To sustain their lives and build their dreams, everyone in the centre does his or her part in gardening the vegetables and fruit they need for their dinner tables.
They sell the surplus in Kundiawa or Goroka to raise money for the centre, to supplement their daily living and to save for their school fees.
This daily struggle is never ending as the centre is self sustaining and faces difficult times, especially during the rainy season, when the Kundiawa to Gembogl road is impassable.
But out of the hardship has come many positive developments, one of the success stories which bought tears to the eyes of those at the Mount Wilhelm High School grade 10 graduation last year, was the tale of George Ulka.
George was orphaned as a young child and raised by his grand parents. He was then left in the care of the Irugl Care Centre when the grand parents became too old to look after him.
George is now doing year 11 at Kondiu Secondary School. To support him SCF members at Lihir contributed K300 towards his education costs.
SCF volunteers Mathew Francis and Merrylynn Waim led by Jimmy Drex visited George on Feb 16 to encourage him.
They say no politician in Simbu has ever set foot in Irugl. Its small wonder why they get no political footwork to support some of their projects.
Some of these which need assistance to complete include three septic toilet blocks, three shower blocks and a permanent classroom.
The mini hydro that Martin van der Palen worked so hard to start has now stopped.
Some of their small scale commercial self supporting businesses include a fish pond, honey bee project, rabbit farming and a vegetable farm.
Due to illness, Martin van Der Palen has returned to the Netherlands. But Martin Tine and his family carry on the work that Agatha van der Palen willed upon and poured out from her bruised heart.
These kids will grow up one day and wander off down the valley, perhaps with the distant memory of the only place they call home, and the name van der Palen written firmly in their own hearts.
One of these is my special little girl with the big wide innocent eyes Maria.
Perhaps it is vividly contrasting that Maria’s world is high up in the mountains. One day I hope, she will crest her own dreams and step ashore in the USA that she so innocently highlights on her sweater.
And I believe that by writing this story about her, by sharing what little I know of her dream, you too might be touched by Maria’s beautiful starry eyed dream.

Email big pat on bigpatpng@gmail.com or the President of SCF Jimmy Drex on jimmy.drekore@lglgold.com if you can help the children, those that care for them and supporters of Irugl.
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