PNG girl in Australia raises funds for Lae hospital
A five-year-old Papua New Guinea girl in Australia is raising funds for Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae through collection and sale of empty cans and bottles.
Kiana Ainie Arang, daughter of former PNG champion kick-boxer and professional boxer Kartu ‘Wantok Warrior’ Arang, felt compelled to do so after seeing a heart-breaking Facebook picture of an old man lying on the floor of Angau.
Arang, from Kabwum in Morobe, is now married to Australian woman, Lisa, and they have four children: two girls and two boys.
Kartu and Lisa Arang run a growing property management services and cleaning business in Wollongong and Newcastle in New South Wales
Kiana, according to her dad, has raised $1000 (K2692) so far and is still going strong.
“Around April of last year,” Arang recalls, “I was reading a post on Facebook with a photo of a sick, old man from a remote area of Morobe in pain lying on an outpatient hard floor of Angau Memorial Hospital.
“He was without any pillow, blanket or a single mattress.
“The poster was saying that there were ‘not enough beds.
“My four, now five-year-old daughter, Kiana, looked over my shoulder and saw this old man in the photo.
“She asked me why this bubuman (grandfather) was sleeping like that in pain ‘because it’s not right’.
“I told her the truth about her daddy’s country PNG: ‘We are rich in resources but still can’t help our people with some basic services and needs’.
“She was so sad and from her little heart told me ‘ Dad, how can I help that bubuman with medicine, pillow, blanket and a fold-up bed?”
Arang said in Australia, big supermarkets like Woolworths had ‘Click & Collect’, for empty cans and bottles.
“A machine next to their supermarket, where you put in empty cans and bottles, will print you receipts of 10 cents per bottle or can.
“I told Kiana to start collecting empty bottles and cans to raise money to help her aunties and uncles in PNG.
“She agreed and started straight away.
“She has raised around $1000 so far and is still working hard.
“Her aunty opened a GoFundMe page for her, her school heard, and has been helping her collecting bottles and cans.
“Our family and friends have been very supportive of her.
“She’s been so happy doing this.
“We will open a bank account for her project.”
Arang is also planning charitable fights to raise funds for Angau to complement his daughter’s fundraising drive.
He was raised in Busu Compound, Lae, along the notorious Malahang Back Road, and wants to give something back to his beloved home town and Morobe.
Arang recalls growing up in poverty in the settlement.
“I grew up in Busu Compound, along the Malahang Back Road, and fought for food scraps at the Second-Seven (Malahang) dump,” he remembers.
Kartu ‘Wantok Warrior’ Arang, a product of the Stanley Nandex stable, was PNGs first professional kickboxing world champion in 2004.
Elouera Tony Mundine’s Gym in Redfern, Sydney, signed him up as a professional boxer in 2006 – PNG’s first professional kick boxer to turn professional boxer.
Arang had Australasian bantamweight rankings in 2006, 2007 and 2008
He hung up his gloves in 2010 after an outstanding career spanning 12 year
source: https://thewritestuffpng.com/png-girl-in-australia-raises-funds-for-lae-hospital/
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