Koki market is like no other market in the OFC region. Thousands gather there to buy and sell what little they have. In the shadows of the market is the Koki Market Community Learning Centre run by Dame Carol Kidu. For Kidu it is the culmination of a life-long project to provide essential living skills and key messages about health issues affecting Papua New Guineans.
It was Dame Carol who built “Carol’s Library” at Koki Market in a bid to bring learning opportunities to the local people and on the day of the visit the buildings are daubed with FIFA and OFC banners welcoming the delegations.
Thousands were on hand to witness the FIFA president Blatter and OFC president Reynald Temarii visit the Learning Centre at Koki Market learn more about the day to day struggles people face in Papua New Guinea. Outside the Community Learning Centre, a game of five-a-side football was being played, fenced off from the delegation by a ten foot fence laced with razor sharp barbed wire. The two teams proudly sailed across from a nearby island that afternoon in their full kits to play before the FIFA and OFC delegations. It was a moving sight.
PORT MORESBY GENERAL HOSPITAL HIV/AIDS WARD VISIT
The HIV/AIDS ward at Port Moresby General Hospital is packed to overflowing. Between 60-70 patients lie in their beds, relatives nearby, waiting to die. Some patients sleep under their bed on the linoleum floor because it is too hot and uncomfortable as the afternoon heat lifts the temperature to the mid-thirties. They are skeletal, bug-eyed, alone and without hope. The patients range in age from 3 right up to their late 70’s and the sense of sadness pervading the room has no equal in words.
The visit by the OFC president and the FIFA president has taken the ward by storm and patients and their families make their ultimate effort to be ready for when they arrive. One elderly man brushes the hair of his 12-year old son and sits him upright, tidying his bed clothes and bed, hugs him, and then kisses his forehead. A copy of the Post-Courier with the sports pages is draped over the end of the bed and the faces of Reynald Temarii and David Chung peer back from the pages.
Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Health Sir Peter Barter shows Temarii and Blatter the reality of the disease that has the people of Papua New Guinea in it’s ruthless grip and many in the delegation are moved to tears as patients shake hands, smile weakly, and thank the presidents’ for their visit. The sense of total helplessness is overwhelming and gives perspective to the everyday problems faced by people in other countries.
Hospital staff are overworked and underpaid and recently went on strike as the government struggles to cope with the overwhelming numbers of new infections. No amount of money, no amount of OFC and FIFA pins, badges or t-shirts will change the inevitable future of these people.
It seems churlish to even suggest football can make a difference, but Dame Carol Kidu disagrees and says that the game brings hope to the country. “This visit by the OFC and FIFA delegations will paint the true picture in this country for our visitors and show them that their presence here – the presence of football as a tool for social responsibility – is vital.”