It was a surprise visit after Easter from Trukai Industries Limited to the children at Life PNG Care at Gerehu in Port Moresby.
The charity organisation was presented with K10,000 from Trukai Industries as part of their ‘mama’s’ donation for being the winner of the 2019 Trukai Community Award Winner from this year’s Westpac Outstanding Women (WOW) awards.
Freda Yakio Pake is the wife of Collin Pake, the founder of Life PNG Care. Freda is referred to as their mama and teacher.
Freda Yakio was the recipient of Trukai’s Community Award at the 2019 WOW awards last month in recognition of her work at Life PNG Care. She runs the daily operation of Life PNG Care from the family’s residence at Gerehu Stage 3.
She is the youngest of six siblings, born and raised in West New Britain but is originally from Enga Province.
She completed year 12 at UPNG’s Open Campus in Kimbe and then moved to Port Moresby after receiving an offer from the University of Papua New Guinea to study Business Management.
After graduating from the University of Papua New Guinea in 2012 with a degree in Business Management, Freda decided to put her own dreams on hold and helped her husband, Collin Pake, to register their foundation – Life PNG Care.
The charity organisation helps orphans and disadvantaged children living in Port Moresby by taking them off the streets and providing a home, meals and education. The foundation currently looks after 56 resident children and over 300 non-resident children who reside with relatives.
Since the inception of Life PNG Care, Freda assumed the role of a full time stay-at-home mother to the children. She manages four volunteers who help her to attend to the children needs and ensures all the children in her care are treated fairly.
Apart from running the daily operations of Life PNG Care’s main program, Freda also runs a mobile school at Baruni with the help of four volunteer teachers. The school’s aim is to provide basic literature for the children and health awareness to the community at Baruni.
On April 25th, Trukai Industries Ltd presented a cheque of K10,000 as part of its WOW sponsorship to help Freda and her husband progress the great work that they do to help unfortunate children in Port Moresby.
Trukai Industries goes beyond just its normal sponsorship towards the annual Westpac Outstanding Women (WOW) by providing additional K10,000 to the Trukai Community Award recipient to help progress their work in their communities.
Trukai Industries also support the children at Life PNG Care with monthly rice donation since 2015. Each month they receive 100 kilograms of Trukai rice for their daily meals.
Freda thanked Westpac for initiating the WOW awards and providing the platform for her to tell her story. She also thanked Trukai for the kind donation towards Life PNG Care and for supporting women like her to share her story and hopefully make an impact to inspire others.
(Trukai Industries Limited Corporate Affairs Manager, Ancilla Wrakuale, left, presenting the cheque to Freda Yakio, right, and the children and volunteers from Life PNG Care)