Food security is our focus in 2014

FROM THE CEO’S DESK 2

FISH FARMINGINTEREST GROWING

OTDF MANAGING THE DARU HATCHERY

CMCA HEALTH PROGRAMME UPDATE

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3MEET OUR TRAILBLAZERS

Ok Tedi Development Foundation’s theme for this year is ‘Increasing

Food Security by Strengthening Community Engagement’.The organisation interprets this as “the next step in not only ensuring self sustainability but the first steps in commercialising primary productivity to deliver an improvement in the quality of life in the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) regions and the entire Western

Province”.OTDF Chief Executive Officer Ian Middleton said the achievements of the Foundation in 2012 and 2013 and consequent intent of our community partners has driven this undertaking.Over these two years, OTDF has delivered on the aspirations of the CMCA people through the delivery of three vessels, two twin otter aircraft and more recently the Middle and South Fly health programme, two roads and a footbridge as long term enablers of commerce and saving lives by improving health care services. “With all these high impact projects and the Provincial Education Feasibility Study underway, we are now focusing on larger scale farming to complement the 2014 theme. This theme will be driven through our OTDF Model Village Concept, each of which will act as hubs for expansion from 2015,” Mr Middleton said. The Concept started last year and it focuses at the village level as the basic unit of society for planning and integration of households’ needs. All willing participants can partner with the Foundation to ensure that areas such as food security and economic

livelihood, health, education, infrastructure, business opportunities and resources, law and order, youth, women and children’s issues, are all addressed to an acceptable set of minimum standards. So far, 11 pilot model villages have been selected. In the North Fly, Migalsim (mine village), Grehosore, Derengo and Ambaga have been selected as model villages while Moian, Kuem and Kasa are model villages in the Middle Fly.Mr Middleton said the Foundation will establish agricultural, livestock and fisheries packages by year end. “The Regional Development, and the Programme Services teams have begun rolling out various large scale agricultural and livelihood projects throughout the CMCA region. Each of these will be written up as a package of measures with growth rates, yields, establishment costs and a simple cash flow. “From 2015 each of these packages will be offered to villages to select those that best suit them, allowing large scale regional funding submissions to be made to available development funds,” he said.

Children of Kasa village in the Middle Fly show off ripe bananas grown in their village

This is a quarterly publication of the Ok Tedi Development Foundation and its community partners of Western Province Issue 04 January - March 2014

Ok Tedi Development Foundation Limited (OTDF) is a new and dynamic organisation mandated to deliver projects into all our community partner regions of the Western Province.OTDF is a not for profit organisation, conceived in 2001 as part of the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) for the Ok Tedi Mine to continue operating to benefit these mine associated communities.Following a review of the CMCA in 2006/2007, the Ok Tedi Fly River Development Programme (OTFRDP) was registered as the Company’s trading name to operate independently of OTML operations. Since March 2010, OTDF has been the vehicle delivering sustainable projects and programmes to the CMCA communities.

About Us

What is Food Security?

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access

to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences. In many countries, health problems related to dietary excess are an ever increasing threat, In fact, malnutrition and food borne diarrhoea have become a double burden.Food security is built on three pillars:• Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available

on a consistent basis.• Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain

appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.• Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of

basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.

Food security is a complex sustainable development issue, linked to health through malnutrition, but also to sustainable economic development, environment, and trade. There is a great deal of debate around food security with some arguing that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone adequately; the problem is distribution. Future food needs can - or cannot - be met by current levels of production. National food security is paramount - or no longer necessary because of global trade. Globalization may - or may not - lead to the persistence of food insecurity and poverty in rural communities.

An extract from the World Health Organisation www.who.int

From the CEO’s DeskHello readers and welcome

to this fourth edition of the Foundations’ quarterly Fly Breeze newsletter. All of us at OTDF hope you had a great Easter long weekend and ANZAC Day celebrated in its true spirit, taking time to reflect on the sacrifices few individuals make for the benefit of a great many people. The first quarter of 2014 has set the basis for the Foundation to deliver on the ‘2014 Food Security’ theme. To carry on from the opening page, this is

very important for the Foundation as we look at developing a sustainable future for our community partners. This won’t be an easy task but with the positive attitude of the communities and the dedication of the Regional Development and Programme Services staff to engage in the field, particularly within the Model Villages, we can achieve this intent to commercialise primary productivity and forestry. OTDF’s aspiration for larger scale primary production by the CMCA communities from 2014 has been made possible by the operations of the passenger vessel, Fly Hope, providing villagers greater accessibility to services and markets and the current construction of the Aiambak to Lake Murray highway. The Foundation is enabling commerce by providing accessibility to markets and we would like to encourage our community partners to take advantage of these links. Once opened throughout 2014 the Pampenai Road, the Aiambak to Lake Murray Road and the Ningerum footbridge spanning across the Ok Tedi River will open up accessibility to thousands of locals who can once more tap their rubber, plant new crops and bring their produce to markets to sell and earn an income to support their livelihood. We are not starting from scratch, many CMCA villagers are beginning to cultivate their land and produce healthy crops for their own consumption and for trading and you will see examples of this throughout the newsletter. OTDF is also introducing innovations such as solar food driers to preserve and add value to these crops, especially fruits such as mangoes and bananas. At the end of the newsletter you will also find an update on the Middle and South Fly Health Programme, this will be included each six months, alternating with education updates, the first of which you will read about in the end of June newsletter. This copy also includes a page on the growing interest in aquaculture and OTDF taking on the management of the Daru Barramundi Hatchery while on the following page you will also learn a little more about two of our high achievers, Leo Tremani and Arua Arua who are to be congratulated on being recognised for their dedication to OTDF.

Ian Middleton, OTDF CEO

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Mr Tremani is from Yangoru, East Sepik Province and currently resides in Lae, Morobe Province.

1. How long have you been working with OTDF? This is my fourth year with OTDF. I started as a graduate trainee under OTML’s Graduate Development Scheme programme in 2005 when OTDF was part of OTML. When OTDF become independent from OTML in 2010, I was one of its first employees to remain working with the new entity. 2. Tell us more about the role you play within OTDF?

I look after the procurement, logistics and asset management of OTDF assets and equipment, including the Trust approved project materials for the CMCA communities that are sourced every quarter. I also ensure the effective coordination of OTDF’s daily operational activities such as ensuring orders are approved and processed on time, field teams are adequately supported and mobile assets are readily available with minimal hiccups to our operations. 3. Why do you like working with OTDF? I’m proud of working with this great organisation and as a foundation employee, I’m thankful for the responsibility and trust given to me by the CEO and his management and I am fully committed to making sure this trust is not lost. That’s something that motivates me to work for OTDF for a long while yet.4. What are you most passionate about? Real tangible development and development agendas that achieve proven outcomes for the CMCA communities. 5. Do you have any hobbies? I love cooking, either in the kitchen or just doing a BBQ. Cooking fascinates me and nowadays, I always watch cooking shows to improve my cooking skills.

Mr Arua is from the ‘Big Village’ of Port Moresby, Hanuabada, in the National Capital District. 1. How long have you beenworking with OTDF? I left OTDF during the redundancy exercise in 2010, and returned to the organisation in September 2013 to assume my current role. So, this is only my sixth month back with the organisation. 1. Tell us more about the role

you play within OTDF?I am responsible for developing, promoting and administering community development programmes in the Central Middle Fly region. My specific responsibilities include community liaison whereby I provide appropriate information, skills and development opportunities to improve the CMCA people’s livelihood in the area of agriculture. I also maintain our food crop and forestry Multiplication and Distribution Centre at our Aiambak Field base and conduct regular communication sessions with the community and their leaders. 2. Why do you like working with OTDF? OTDF is very focused, community oriented and has a commitment to ensure our communitites are self sustainable. That’s what makes me like working with this organisation. 3. What are you most passionate about? Contributing and participating in the delivery of services to improve and change the livelihood and wellbeing of our partner communities and to develop their capacity to become self sustainable. 4. Do you have any hobbies? I love playing and listening to music, doing cross words and reading.

Village receives good water supply

The people of Bultem, one of the mine villages in the North Fly region now has an improved water supply

thanks to their Village Planning Committee (VPC). The VPC decided on improving the village’s water supply last year following concerns from the community regarding low water pressure from the existing supply and that some parts of the village were without any water supply at all. The project began in January 2014. Three water tanks, each with a capacity of 9,000 litres have been installed while the final phase of the project will be the maintenance of existing water taps and the installation of poly pipes. Regional Development Team Leader for North Fly Miape Baupupu said the project is being funded from the village’s Village Development Fund (VDF) at an

initial cost of K30, 000. However, he said that cost might increase after final maintenance is done on the supporting infrastructure of exisitng catchments and tanks. “Water is very important to this village because of a rapid increase in population which the existing water supply couldn’t cater for. Consequently, some parts of the village have had no water for many years. Residents from those parts have to walk to where there was water supplied elsewhere within the village, fetch and carry back water for drinking, cooking, washing and doing their laundry.” Baupupu said. OTDF engaged a contractor from Lae, Morobe Province to implement the project and help install pipes to channel the water from a natural, primary water source into the respective village tanks.

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OTDF continues to deliver on the aspirations of our 114,000-plus community partners in the CMCA region because of our hard working staff. In this issue, we feature two of these staff who have each been rewarded for their outstanding performance and the passion to deliver. Team Leader Procurement, Logistics and Asset Management Leo Tremani was awarded the Staff Member of the Quarter Award while Middle Fly Regional Development Agriculture officer Arua Arua was awarded the Staff Encouragement Award. These awards are given out every quarter.

Meet our trailblazers

Fish farming interestgrowing

Interest in inland fish farming is growing in the North Fly district of

Western Province with more villagers keen on venturing into this project to sustain their livelihood. Since the programme started, many fish farmers have expressed an interest although not all have been successful in setting up ponds to farm fish.This did not dampen the spirits of 30 villagers from the village of Ingembit who visited fish farms on an exposure trip in March. The purpose of the trip was to provide an insight to the villagers on how to start a fish pond and the benefits such a project would bring. The villagers visited three fish farms located along the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway. The sites visited were at Kwiloknai village in the Tutuwe Trust region and at Migalsim village, one of the six Mine Villages.The Kwiloknai fish farm is run by Noah Dem, a young man who is one

of several OTDF Model Fish Farmers. Mr Dem started his fish farm in 2012 and last year he earned over K2,000 from a single pond harvest of tilapia. The villagers then visited two fish farms at Migalsim, one owned by Willie Wokasok and another owned by Starus Nameng and Abraham Isok. Mr Wokasok’s farm has been in operation for some years thanks to the ongoing support of the North Fly Regional Development team of OTDF. The story is the same for Mr Nameng and Mr Isok, who started their farm nearly eight years ago. Their farm is probably one of the most successful in the district having made thousands that directly helped fund their children’s school fees to higher institutions in the country amongst other things. “For us fish is gold. The money I earned from the fish has helped me pay for my son’s bride price and my children’s school fees for many years now,” Mr

Nameng said.“One of my children will be attending a pilot training school this year and I hope to support him from money I earn from my farm,” he added.Vitalia Awang, one of the visiting villagers, said she came on the trip so that she could learn how to set up a fish farm to help support her mother and three younger brothers attending school.“My younger brother Joel, who didn’t complete his Grade 8 due to school fee problems has also come on this trip so that we both can learn something here and go back and set up our own farm to help him continue with his education,” she said.The Model Fish Farmer programme is running successfully in the North Fly district; in 2013 OTDF delivered technical fish farming skills training to 56 new fish farmers, adding to the 175 existing farmers in the region.

In 2012, 100 sago seeds were planted as an isolated trial crop at Moian

village in the Middle Fly region. The seeds were brought from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. After almost two years, these planted seeds have germinated into healthy sago trees. Middle Fly Regional Development Officer Roger Babu (pictured) said once the trees fully mature and there are no quarantine concerns, their seeds will be collected and distributed to the seven Upper Middle Fly CMCA villages including Moian itself, most likely by 2018. The land where these sago trees are

growing was provided to OTDF at no cost by local businessman Moses Tenai. That portion of land also has a Village Multiplication and Distribution Centre (MDC) and a Seed Production Area (SPA) for eaglewood and other food crops. From the MDC and SPA,

eaglewood and other seedlings have also been distributed to the Upper Middle Fly villages. “He told us when he gave us this land that all he wanted was for us to develop that land for the good of all his communities,” Mr Babu said.

2012 2014

Buka ‘saksak’ growing well

The villagers at Mr Dem’s fish farm at Kwiloknai village.

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OTDF now managing theDaru hatchery

The Western Province Sustainable Aquaculture (WPSA) project,

previously owned and managed by the PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) is now being managed by OTDF.OTDF began looking after this project in December 2013 and since then over 30,000 fingerlings have already been produced. These fingerlings have been raised in the hatchery for grow out trials and restocking into designated sites along the Fly River. OTDF Chief Executive Officer Ian Middleton said OTDF will continue to manage the project until a decision is made on its new ownership.He said the project in Daru was important to Western Province to sustain the wild barramundi population which is in gradual decline due to over fishing.“We successfully produced a significant crop of over 30,000 healthy fingerlings in January which coincided with the natural breeding season for the wild barramundi. With that first harvest secured, we intend to produce another batch of fingerlings before winter, this is expected to be in May,” he said.Prior to becoming CEO of OTDF, Mr Middleton initially established and managed the WPSA project. Efran Adie and Jason Tigaru, who

had worked alongside Mr Middleton on his private barramundi project (Bismark Barramundi) in Madang some years ago and now supervising the Daru hatchery, said they were both overwhelmed with the involvement of OTDF and the first production of healthy fish after four unsuccessful years since Mr Middleton left.“We spawned approximately a million eggs, those fertilised were then transferred to the larval rearing ponds. From that, we harvested over 30,000 fingerlings six weeks later with very high survival rates in the hatchery tanks,” Mr Adie said.Daru Islander, Maria Orugu who has worked at the Hatchery since it was established in 2009, was grateful the project continued operating and supporting the local communities. “I’m also grateful for the opportunity of employment this project has provided me and with OTDF now managing the project, I look forward to learning more,” she said.The project includes a barramundi hatchery, storage, administration building and staff accommodation. It also has a modern bio-filtration and aeration facility, with a customised water supply system and is capable of producing up to 200,000 fingerlings every year.

Maria Orugu showing the fingerlings harvested from the ponds.

Top: The fingerlings being harvested from the pond while above, Adie and Tiagaru with some of the fingerlings.

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This newsletter is produced by the OTDF Public Rela-tions to update and report on developments OTDF is carrying out throughout the Community Mine Continu-ation Agreement (CMCA) region, including the Western Province. If you have any comments or feedback, please send them to Mackhenly Kaiok on email mackhenly.kaiok@otdfpng.org or call 649 5550.

Want to know more about OTDF?649 3321 or 649 3716

732 06971 or 732 06972

team@otdfpng.org

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The CMSFHP team responded to two potential disease outbreaks, in partnership with other health service

providers. In December 2013, the team immunised 1,040 children against measles in and around Kiunga. This was in response to a confirmed measles case in Tabubil. Measles is a highly contagious viral infection and can spread rapidly in populations with sub-optimal vaccination coverage. For these reasons, the Middle and South Fly CMCA regions are at risk and efforts to limit transmission in the North Fly District have benefits beyond the borders of the North Fly.

The team worked with Catholic Health Services, District Health Services and the North Fly Health Services Development Programme. Then in January 2014, the team received a call from the Provincial Health Office, requesting assistance to investigate a suspected outbreak of diarrhoea and influenza-like illness in the Suki Fly Gogo region. There was no evidence of an outbreak detected, however health promotion about the importance of hygiene, sanitation and waste disposal was delivered.

Health team responds to disease outbreak

Since the launching of the CMCA Middle and South Fly Health Programme (CMSFHP) last year, there has been

considerable work done within the two regions; following is an update from Abt JTA, the implementer of the K43 million five year programme which started in July 2013.The first activity of the programme was the start-up patrols which covered 65 villages in five CMCA trust regions conducted between the 26th July and the 15th October. The patrols had three aims, that is to:• Provide information to communities about the

programme;• provide clinical health services in communities and;• conduct a baseline study to determine the current status

ans availability of health services.The patrols saw a total of 3,778 patients; 178 patients were seen for pneumonia, 97 for diarrhoea, and 15 for malaria. Four hundred children were immunised and 125 women received antenatal care. In communities, 162 community members were interviewed about their perceptions of health services, and 20 focus group discussions were conducted. In addition, for the baseline study, 17 health facilities were assessed, 20 health workers were interviewed and 165 clients to those facilities were interviewed. Since the conclusion of the start-up patrols in October, the team has been back to a number of villages. In December during added Middle Fly patrols, a team went to Bosset and Obo to repair three vaccine fridges. The Health Extension Officer in that team

assisted clinical care and evacuation of a seriously ill newborn child. A second patrol to Aiambak and Wangawanga areas, provided acute care, child health and family planning. This team assisted the referral of a child with a broken limb. A third patrol in December travelled between Membok and Moian and provided clinical services and where available vaccinations. In January 2014 a patrol to the Upper Middle Fly area delivered clinical programmes, health promotion awareness of communicable diseases, Tuberculosis (TB) and lifestyle diseases, and spoke to communities about the proposed Village Health Volunteer (VHV) programme. Another patrol, to Moian and Uluwas delivered mop-up measles immunisation, family planning and general clinics. South Fly community visits focused on other health related activities. In January 2014 the Infrastructure Officer went to Parama, Katatai and Kadawa to inspect rainwater catchment sites delivered by OTDF Engineering Services under the South Fly Water Catchment Project. This was a learning exercise and the lessons learnt and information gained will underpin the designing of health centre water infrastructure, which is an agreed infrastructure item for 2014. Also, the Programme’s Health Information Officer visited Daru and Balimo in January and met with the District and Provincial Health Information Officers. In partnership with all stakeholders an activity plan for 2014 has now been developed and agreed from information collected during the above patrols. This plan reflects the priorities of the Provincial Annual Implementation Plan. A framework for communications between partners and the use of Memorandum of Agreements to strengthen aspects of programme delivery (housing, major infrastructure and procurements, clinical placements) have been agreed. The plan will see increased engagement with communities, through health patrols that address maternal and child health, TB, HIV and malaria; providing equipment to health facilities; and activities such as supporting Healthy Village committees. The team is based in Kiunga and invites you to visit the Abt JTA office, located near the Kiunga Post Office.

Health programme making inroadsUPDATE

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