Santos together with the Papua New Guinea Cancer Foundation (PNGCF) are pleased to announce the launch of the 18th Daffodil Corporate Golf Challenge to be held on Friday, 02nd September 2022 at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.
Santos Country Chair, PNG, Mr Leon Buskens at the launch event said, “We recognize the golf tournament not only funds PNGCF’s annual programs, but it is also an important platform to spotlight the alarming statistics being seen and felt in our country especially with breast and cervical cancer in our women.”
For the last 18 years, the support provided to the cancer foundation has reached communities across the country extending Santos’ impact in health, education and youth empowerment. The company is now looking to invest more heavily in cancer prevention through greater collaboration with other partners including the National Department of Health.
“We cannot continue doing the same things and expect a better result as the gap has grown worse. It will take every one of us in both the public and private sectors to fight this disease. We owe it to all those touched by cancer and to our future generations,” said Mr Buskens.
Representing the PNGCF Board, Dr Lynda Sirigoi (PNGCF, Deputy Chair) thanked Santos for its commitment to the Daffodil campaign and assistance with hosting the annual Golf Event. “It is my pleasure to launch the 2022 Daffodil Corporate Golf Challenge on behalf of the board of the Papua New Guinea Cancer Foundation and to also thank Santos for their continued commitment to the Daffodil Campaign for the 18th year.”
The Santos-funded golf event has been an annual activity on the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club’s charity event calendar since 2003, receiving great support from Port Moresby’s private and business community every year. The annual golf day is hosted by PNGCF under the Daffodil Campaign to encourage individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices to reduce their cancer risk and to inspire the message of hope for a healthier Papua New Guinea.
In spite of the challenge of returning to normalcy after COVID-19, PNGCF has conducted 20 community visits to implement its public health and cancer prevention education programs schedule with the assistance generated at the 2021 Daffodil Golf event (a sum of K144,000 was raised from team registrations, an auction and raffle sales). With this support, PNGCF extended its reach to over 500 men and women through 10 awareness sessions in settlement communities across the National Capital District.
A total of 10 hybrid sessions (in-person and virtual) for corporate & business houses were also conducted, and up to 9,000 Information Education Communication, or IEC materials (awareness brochures and flyers) were distributed through the community visits. The PNGCF programs schedule will continue into next year with provincial programs to be conducted in Momase region (Lae and Madang Provinces).
PNGCF Executive Manager, Ms Priscillar Napoleon acknowledged key supporters of the Daffodil campaign and the cancer foundation such as Moore Printing, Telikom Limited, The National and BSP Finance.
“At last year’s golf day, we saw an overwhelming 44 teams register for the Daffodil Corporate Golf Challenge with Origin Energy taking the title. We have 20 teams registered at present including Marsh Limited, Motu-Koita Assembly, PNG Ports, RH Group, and Origin Energy, defending the Daffodil Cup. We are keen on receiving more registrations in the coming weeks,” Ms Napoleon said.