The Women of Hope Ministries have made a general appeal to the Ministry of Health, relative donor agencies and the community to lend a hand.
WOH provides for women and children living with HIV and TB at their Women of Hope home in the Bautama, Central Province, Papua New Guinea.
Founder of the nine-year old non-profit organisation, Veronica Charlie, is constantly faced with shortage in resources and a debt beyond her capacity.
The WOH home is all they have; four bedrooms shared by about 20 women and children living with HIV. These are people who have been shunned by their families, rejected by society and left to depend on the streets for survival.
The Women of Hope Foundation seeks to give people in their position hope and a place to call home.
Each of the women, and their children, have a heart wrenching story to tell of the stigma and discrimination they face on a daily basis.
Founder of the Ministry, Veronica has her own story to tell. Growing up, she was forced to eat food that was thrown at Baruni dump and married at 16 with no educational background.
She is now a self-made business woman who specialises in furniture carpentry.
Veronica said she was inspired to establish this foundation because she saw herself in these women and children. She manages the home the best she can with the surplus she earns from her business and garden food they cultivate near the home.
However, a few years back, the ministry engaged the help of a church to install a bore water supply for worth K19,000. Veronica says she had paid K7,000 with an outstanding of K12, 000.
She claims her appeal to the Ministry of Health has fallen on deaf ears, and that a pledge of K30,000, made by current Minister of Health, Michael Malabag, in 2013, has not been received.
WOH secretary, Ethel Sandry Kuto, called on the Ministry to honor its promise and for relative organisations to recognise the needs of the women they look after.
Despite the circumstances, Veronica continues to dream of building a better home for the lives she cares about.
