Local businessman donates $15,000 for child cancer foundation [1]
Friday, December 7, 2012 - 18:26. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Ross Chapman with Sina Kami of the Taie Kami Foundation. Nuku'alofa, 7 December 2012.
Tongan businessman Ross Chapman, the Chairman of Pacific Finance and Investments Ltd., today donated $15,000 to help support a local child cancer foundation.
He presented a cheque to Sina Kami and the Tae Kami Foundation to assist in the 2012 Walk On Walk Strong, three-day festival, starting on Friday 14 December.
Ross said they were very keen in supporting the Tae Kami Foundation and to get the message across to the Tongan community. "The foundation brings to the forefront the need to support cancer particularly in children," he said.
Sina lost her daughter Lu'isa Tae Kami Jr (15) to cancer in 2008, after her daughter's courageous three-year battle, and the family set up the foundation to help other children with cancer. She thanked Ross for his continued financial support since they first started the Walk on Walk Strong (WOWS) campaign in Nuku'alofa in 2009.
Festival
This donation will finance 24-year-old singer Vanessa Quai from Vanuatu to come to Tonga and hold a free concert at the Sofele Kakala Hall at Ma'ufanga, on Friday 14 December, said Sina.
Other fundraising activities will include the WOWS walk from Maamaloa grounds to Vaha'akolo Road on Saturday, 15 December. A WOWS shave or save will be held on the same day at the Nuku'alofa car park in CBD.
The activities will end with a Christmas carols night with the children and their families at Queen Salote Memorial Hall on Sunday 16 December.
"We are doing this because there are many other kids with cancer who need our support," Sina said.
"The proceeds will go to the Tae Kami Foundation as we have objectives to fulfill like setting up a scholarship fund for children," she said.