Luman Hipakoko – A Place to Find Help
The amazing women of the Hako Women’s Collective on Buka island are building a community care centre which they call Luman Hipakoko- A place to find help
These resilient and resourceful women are working hard to help their community recover from the scars of the conflict and to improve the quality of life and opportunity for the 60,000 people who live across and between the six villages in this region. They already deliver training and skills development programs, education, parenting support, disability services and support for victims of domestic violence. They do this from a small building that has no toilet, kitchen or running water. The new centre would house these services and more.
When completed, the centre will comprise a ‘Meri Safe House”, a large meeting area, a canteen and an ablutions block. This will join the existing educational resource centre and a future planned rice mill to complete a centre from which the Hako Women’s Collective can provide the range of vital social services and community development activities that will contribute so much to the wellbeing of their community. It will also allow them to run income-generating activities to help fund ongoing costs.
The project is widely supported by all the Chiefs and the broader Hako community and workers from across the region are participating in the build. Dominic Finlay Jones Architects in Byron Bay have drawn up the plans pro bono. The site has been prepared and cleared and all is ready for the build.
A testimony to their passion and determination, the women have already raised over half the money needed to build the centre. They need help to raise the rest.
The Australian based not-for-profit, Partners in International Collaborative Community Aid (PICCA) has partnered with the Hako Women’s Collective to run a crowdfunding campaign hoping to raise the $26,000 that is still needed so the women of Hako can build the centre and get on with their day job: the great work they do in providing desperately needed services in their community. This will finish the core of the centre, the meeting facility, the canteen, and the ablutions block. Funds for the rice mill build will be tackled on another day.
The campaign will run from 21 August to 15 September 2017.
All donations over $2 are tax deductible in Australia. What’s more, every cent that PiCCA receives through this campaign will go to the Hako Women’s Collective for the project. PiCCA operates on a completely pro bono basis and deducts no monies for its own administration costs ensuring that donors’ money is spent where it should be: in the community it is designed to assist.
The crowdfunding campaign (https://chuffed.org/project/a-place-to-find-help) is being hosted on the Chuffed platform. Chuffed do charge a small fee to cover the cost of processing monies.Those who donate through the Chuffed platform can decide if they wish to also donate to Chuffed or to opt out simply by clicking the edit button when that option is presented.
So here is how can you help
You can forward information on this crowdfunding campaign on Facebook, Linkedin, email to people you know who might be interested. The more people it reaches the better chance the women of Hako have of achieving their goal.
You can make a donation. Large or small, every bit helps.
You can talk to the people at PiCCA for other options including sponsorship and volunteering.
Pictured: Women of the Hako Women’s Collective arriving on the site of the proposed Community Care Centre for a planning meeting
