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By LUCY KAPI
GENEROUS individuals and a couple of business houses have responded to
an appeal by Friends Foundation (FF) to bury the 39 unclaimed infants at
the Port Moresby General Hospital morgue.
The infants, who mostly died at stillbirth, had been left at the PoMGH
morgue since last February, abandoned by their parents.
One of those who responded to the appeal was businessman Raymond Agonia,
operator of The Funeral Homes.
Mr Agonia called up The National last Tuesday to say that he was
donating 20 caskets next week for the burials of the infants.
Another kind-hearted Papua New Guinean, Margaret Dull, currently
residing and working in Adelaide, Australia, emailed this reporter on
Wednesday to pledge a box of clothing for the infants.
A member of the Rotary Club, Mrs Dull and her two other friends are
organising a box of clothes to send to The National’s postal address for
Friends Foundation.
Parua Lawyers was another organisation that had donated K1,000.
FF boss Rory Sitapai confirmed that an anonymous lady who always
assisted their appeals donated K1,500.
B&D Investments Ltd representative Michael Bai was at The National to
present a cheque for K1,000 to Mr Sitapai .
“Our thoughts go out to the parents of all those infants and we commend
the efforts of Friends Foundation and The National,” Mr Bai said.
Mr Bai, adding the company would be very happy to help out again.
“We’ll definitely put our hands out in the future,” he said.
The National Newspaper marketing director Maco Hontiveros, who was on
hand during the presentation, said “it was good to see business houses
and individuals coming out to help”.
“The infants are God’s blessings and should not be ignored by their
parents or the society.”
She said in publishing such appeals, The National has done its part in a
small way to encourage individuals and business houses to participate in
a good cause.
Mr Sitapai thanked B&D Investments, Parua Lawyers, Funeral Home, and the
two ladies for their generosity adding they would be burying the infants
next week once the caskets and burial procedures had been finalised.
He, however, said if the box of clothes arrived after the burial, they
would distribute them to the orphans whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS.
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