ABG has duty of care says Bishop Kronenburg

By Tapo Tovilu

An AusAID project worth K1.1 million will construct six new buildings for the Nazareth counselling and rehabilitation centre at Chabai.

The buildings include staff houses, an office, a kitchen and classrooms.

At a ceremony at Chabai, Bishop of the Catholic Church in Bougainville, Hank Kronenburg, and Bougainville AusAID representative, Edwina Betts, initiated the first stage of the project.

Bishop Kronenburg thanked the Sisters and facilitators of the centre for their tireless effort and thanked AusAID for its support and funding.

He also challenged the ABG, saying it had a duty to take care of its people, that the people were part of its responsibility, and that it should not rely too much on the churches.

Ms Betts said AusAID was pleased to fund the project, adding that the centre had a big role to play in the rebuilding process on Bougainville.

Founder Sister Loraine Garasu said the centre, which was established in 2001, started from a bunch of ideas and was built from virtually nothing.

“I had help from DKA, an Austrian aid mission, which gave me K1,000 and from that the centre was started,” Sister Loraine said.

She said the centre had been raising funds from its farms and little fundraising drives.

“It has been a struggle and a challenge bringing up this centre from nothing,” she said.

Sister Loraine said the centre not only has counselling for victims of violence but offers post trauma counselling, youth leadership training, housekeeping and book keeping training, agriculture and has recently introduced counselling for ex-combatants.

Sister Loraine said the centre is helping in the rebuilding and training of Bougainville youths, the future leaders.

Tapo Tovilu is a journalism student at Divine Word University

Comments

[Maria Buka Meri]

God Bless you Sr. Loraine! Your tenacity, persistence and continuing efforts have once again produced a positive and tangible result for Chabai and those people of Bougainville who are crying out for support and compassion.

Looking forward to my next visit to Chabai in 2010.