Trukai renews its support for MAMA Foundation

The SunRice Group renewed its sponsorship of the Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA) Foundation with a support of K120, 000 through its subsidiary Trukai Industries.

SunRice Group CEO Paul Serra, Trukai Board Chairman John Bradford and Trukai Industries CEO Alan Preston were present to make this announcement at the Manolos Heliport in Lae, Morobe Province.

Trukai Industries is two thirds owned by SunRice Group and the people of Papua New Guinea through the Pacific Balanced Fund (PBF) and its 22,000 national unit holders. Weathermen Capital Advisors is the Interim Trustee of the Pacific Balanced Fund.

Present during this announcement were other SunRice Group Board members and Corporate Management team including Trukai Industries’ Corporate Management team.    

Trukai Industries has been supporting Manolos Aviation Ltd and now the MAMA Foundation for nine  years.

This sponsorship will go towards purchasing medical equipment to the value of K120, 000 for the Mountain Area Medical Airlift Foundation clinic for patients airlifted from rural areas. 

 Trukai Industries’ CEO Alan Preston described this sponsorship as a sustainable partnership under the company’s core value of health within its corporate social responsibility program.

“We are proud to support and be associated with an organization like MAMA Foundation as they provide a vital service that has saved the lives of many people in the most difficult to reach places in PNG,” said Preston.

Group CEO for SunRice Group, Paul Serra explained how the company values its people and its support for communities.

“The SunRice Group is committed to making a meaningful contribution to our people, the environment and the communities in which we operate. As a participant of the United Nations Global Compact, the SunRice Group demonstrates our commitment to people and planet through the Ten Principals of the UN Global Compact and the SunRice Environment, Social and good Governance Commitment,” said Serra.

MAMA Foundation’s Director Mr Jurgen Ruh said the K120,000 will go towards the establishment of a proposed clinic for patients who are airlifted from remote areas via helicopter.

“The patients are stabilized on a stretcher inside the helicopter and flown to Lae, when the helicopter lands at the Lae Heliport, they will be transferred straight into the clinic where emergency operations can be conducted.”

“The clinic will only be for people we airlift from remote areas and it will be equipped with an operating theatre and the required medical equipment.”

“Women experiencing child-birth complications in remote PNG is quite common, thus we have obstetric cases every week. When it’s an emergency, we don’t want to waste time. We want the mother to be assisted swiftly and this is the only way we can ensure that mothers we medevac get help quickly.”

From January to June 2024 MAMA Foundation conducted 87 medical evacuations, 55% of which were obstetrics cases.

MAMA Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that assists people in remote PNG survive life-threatening complications, by transporting them via helicopter ambulances to urban hospitals, where they have access to health care and emergency treatment