Eight-year-old Peter suffered severe burns to 70% of his body in a 2024 house fire in Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, which also killed his sibling and burnt his mother badly. Peter spent many months in National Referral Hospital but there was only so much the doctors there could do for him – he needed specialised burns treatment. They referred him to ROMAC and he was accepted for treatment by Prof. Roy Kimble, an eminent Paediatric & Neonatal Surgeon at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. He was admitted in May 2025 and since then, Prof. Kimble has operated to release the contracted skin on his arm and legs and to carry out many graft procedures.

Music therapy has become a source of joy and comfort for Peter, helping him to embrace each day with renewed strength. Watch this uplifting video of Peter playing music with Clare and John, from Music Therapy.

Peter’s treatment will cost over $100,000. Any donation you can make will help make this possible – see www.romac.org.au/donate for more information.

The bonds that are formed between ROMAC members and our young patients are often enduring ones. Recently, our ROMAC Timor-Leste team caught up with Celestina a decade after her successful treatment.

Celestina was born in 2003 in Timor-Leste with Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome (EVC), a rare genetic disorder characterised by disabling skeletal abnormalities and life-threatening heart and lung defects. Since EVC affects multiple systems in the body, treatment tends to be symptom-specific and generally requires a team of medical professionals. Celestina’s future seemed bleak, but ROMAC was able to team up with other humanitarian agencies to give her the help she desperately needed.

In 2015, Celestina became the first patient treated under the new Global Program at Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. She underwent cardiac surgery to correct her atrial septal defect (a hole between the upper chambers of the heart) and her health rebounded rapidly.

Orthopaedic specialist Mr Leo Donnan then helped Celestina by straightening her legs – a lengthy process requiring surgery and months in an Ilizarov frame. The Children First Foundation also stepped in to provide rehabilitation care at their Kilmore farm, and by the end of the year Celestina was able to return home.

Today, Celestina is a poised and confident young woman on the brink of a promising future. Her story is a powerful testament to what can be achieved with humanitarian medical aid, agency cooperation and personal courage and commitment.

Young Lionel was born with an imperforate anus, an often complex congenital malformation involving a range of anorectal structures, including important nerves and muscles. In his tenth year, and following frustrated attempts to correct the condition in his native Solomon Islands, Lionel found the help he needed through the agency of not-for-profit charity ROMAC and in the person of renowned paediatric surgeon Prof. Roy Kimble at Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane.

Lionel’s treatment – surgery followed by careful monitoring and review of restored function – took over three months. During their stay in Australia, Lionel and his mother Elizabeth were embraced by the Solomon Islands Brisbane Community, whose President Rose Fisher hosted the pair and provided essential interpreting assistance.

Although all childhood illness undoubtedly comes with a psychological impact, arguably none could be greater than that of starting life with a malformed bowel. ROMAC’s help and the surgical intervention of Prof. Kimble means Lionel will now be able to toilet normally and largely be spared the social and self-esteem difficulties he would almost certainly have faced as he grows towards maturity.

Krisselda, a Papua New Guinean girl who arrived in Canberra in March 2024, had multiple surgeries at the Canberra Hospital for caudal duplication syndrome, a very rare genetic condition in which internal systems are duplicated and bowel and bladder functions are not normal. Krisselda made good progress with her medical issues under the care of A/Prof Celine Hamid and A/Prof David Croaker. Continued…

Delightful 8-year-old Stancia is from the highlands in Goroka, PNG. She needed major corrective surgery for an ano-rectal fistula.

Her operation was performed in April 2024, followed by 7 minor surgeries, to finally close her stoma. This surgery has been life-changing for Stancia and her mother Hilda.