Group donates medical gear

 THE PNG Tribal Foundation has extended its goodwill to the people of Northern with medical equipment presented to the provincial government.

In a small ceremony in Popondetta last Saturday, president of PNG Tribal Foundation Gary Bustin said he was always happy to be back in PNG to assist with whatever he could.

A flying doctor born in PNG to American missionaries said although he was white, his heart and mind were always Papua New Guinean.

He said he was born in Eastern Highlands and raised in Morobe and East Sepik but never went to international schools like other kids and was too familiar with an ordinary PNG rural life.

After growing up in a rural environment, and later going to the US for further education, he decided to help rural people by setting up the PNG Tribal Foundation.

PNG Tribal Foundation now has well-to-do Americans on the board and is also pursuing interactions with major hospitals and organisations in the US to secure equipment and other assistance to help Papua New Guinea health.

The foundation donated a container of medical equipment, which the provincial health authority very much needed for its health centres.

Bustin said building a nation and delivering service to the people was like building a house on the sand.

“People can build sand castles here and there and say I have done this and that but they won’t last. 

“I appreciate the leadership of Oro Governor Gary Juffa who is building a foundation on a solid rock. He is making strong decisions that can bring good results to the people of Oro in the long run,” he said.

Bustin assured the people of Northern that if they respected their governor and worked with him, he would deliver great things to the province, perhaps not immediately but in the future.

Bustin said he grew up with settlers in PNG and when he went to college in the US, he was a bit lost because the culture and people there would not accept him.

Bustin said when he enquired at PNG Customs to bring in the float plane primarily to serve the sick people in the Sepik Plains, Customs officers would not allow him access but were prepared to charge him heavily, he recalled.

He said when he approached Juffa, who was then Customs Commissioner, he allowed him as he knew his intention. 

Juffa said he was more than pleased to have donors such as PNG Tribal Foundation coming to rescue his sick people because the Health Department did not have the capacity to deliver basic health service to the people of PNG.