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Capuchin mission in PNG ‘under threat’ following devastating earthquake, Mendi bishop says

byMark Bowling
25 May 2018 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
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Bishop Donald Lippert of Mendi diocese

Concerns: Bishop Donald Lippert among the flock in Kero, Imbongu district, southern highlands province.

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Bishop Donald Lippert of Mendi diocese
Concerns: Bishop Donald
Lippert among the flock in Kero, Imbongu district, southern highlands province.

AFTER earthquakes and tribal violence in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands, 270,000 people need immediate life-saving assistance, almost half of them children, while security remains “unpredictable”, according to a United Nations report.

“Access to clean water, food, sanitation, nutrition and health services remain immediate concerns,” a report by the UN’s child relief agency, UNICEF, said.

UNICEF has grave concerns for the long-term mental and physical health of children.

An earthquake on February 26, followed by aftershocks, claimed 125 lives in some of PNG’s remotest highland areas.

As international aid agencies, including Caritas Australia and Church partners, began delivering food and medicines, fighting broke out in Hela province, in which at least seven people died, and urgent aid efforts had to be suspended.

Warring tribes signed a peace agreement on May 4 but UNICEF still rates security as “unpredictable”.

Bishop Donald Lippert, of Mendi diocese, which includes Hela Province, contacted The Catholic Leader on Facebook to say, “It is still in chaos and our mission is under threat. Capuchins have served there since the ’50s.”

As violence raged in late March, Bishop Lippert, a Capuchin, posted on social media about brutal gang attacks on schools in which armed men hunted for “enemy” students to kill, and burned down school buildings.

The UNICEF report describes urgent, ongoing concerns, especially for the protection of children.

“The earthquake and subsequent unsettling aftershocks have caused significant fear, a sense of uncertainty and the disruption of social and educational services in SHP (southern highlands) and Hela provinces, a region already suffering from years of violent group conflicts, domestic violence and gender-based violence,” the report said.

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“This complex emergency is having a profound negative impact on the mental health of children, including on brain development and their overall long-term well-being.

“UNICEF aims to provide 15,000 affected children with psychosocial support, 3000 children in need of protection with access to case management and referral services, and (about) 33,000 children and adults with information on prevention of violence against children.

“To achieve these results, UNICEF aims to establish sixty child-friendly spaces, support community-based psychosocial activities and undertake awareness-raising campaigns.”

The report also predicts children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition.

“Combined with an increased prevalence of diarrhoea, there is a risk of rising mortality rates of children under the age of five,” it said. “The country, and specially the affected areas, have one of the world’s highest rates of stunting (forty-nine per cent).”

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Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

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