About Us

Senta Bilong Helpim

Senta Bilong Helpim is Pidgin English, meaning Care Centre.

It is a centre where we help children with any form of disability or anyone needing physiotherapy following surgery, a stroke or an accident.

The Senta is under the care of and run by the  Passionist Community.
Brother Ben from the Passionist Community supervises the project.

The work of caring, exercising and teaching the children is carried out by people from the local village Waromo, located across the bay from Vanimo. Vanimo is located in the north west of Papua New Guinea, 50 km from the border with Indonesia. Click here for a map.

St Gemma

The Senta, being a catholic institution is under the patronage of St Gemma. St Gemma was an Italian girl with a very strong devotion to the Passion and Death of Jesus and who herself was disabled before a miraculous cure of a spinal tumour.

Gemma also became a Passionist nun on her deathbed and so she was considered a very fitting Saint after whom to name the Senta.

Our Concept

The purpose of the Senta is to give children with disabilities a better quality of life, to make them feel wanted and to show others that these children have many talents if given the opportunity and support to develop.

The aims of the Senta are:

• To assist as many children as possible in any way possible be it with surgery, physiotherapy or just love and care.
• To ensure that the children are accepted by the wider community and more importantly, respected by the community.

Objectives of SBH Support Group

To create a centre of excellence, continuing the model of empowering the community to be responsive to the needs of the disabled in their midst, providing,

• Holistic care
• Education
• Independence skills
• Creative life path
• Development of priorities/growth

Our Clients

The children need the Senta for the love and care shown to them. Unfortunately, in many cases, children with a disability in Papua New Guinea are a burden upon the family and because people think they have nothing to give to society, they are more than often neglected and starved. About 30 children attend the Senta daily.

Medical Assistance

There are regular visits from incredibly generous people.
Doctors, specialist surgeons, theatre staff and physiotherapists come from Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
A heart specialist from Prince Charles hospital in Brisbane is also a regular visitor. The medical teams travel to Vanimo from Australia at their own expense. Many operations have been carried out in either Vanimo or Wewak hospitals in PNG. Twenty of our children have travelled to Australia for surgery that could not be carried out in PNG.

Financial Management

Organisations, as a rule, do not fund maintenance or daily running costs of a project. They will help with the setting up of a project and that is where it ends.
The PNG Government has never offered assistance.
The Senta survives on the generosity of friends and benefactors.
A house has also been built in the township of Vanimo and it has been rented out with the rent going to assist the Senta.
The Senta needs money to help with the daily needs such as equipment, books, fuel for generator, chemicals for the pool and for any unexpected expense such as parts for the generator or vehicles in case of a breakdown.
Three vehicles are used for transporting children to and from the Senta daily.
You can help by making a one-off donation or making an annual donation or by becoming a sponsor with a monthly  donation.
The entire amount of your donation reaches the Senta and is used for the benefit and well being of the children. No deductions are made for administration either here or in Australia.