Paul Osborne during the 1994 Grand Final
Paul Osborne is a highly respected Rugby League identity. Not only has he achieved plenty on the field, but he has also done plenty of off-field community work. Along with his wife, Sally and their nine children (aged from seventeen down to two), Paul lives in the outer Sydney suburb of Dural. He was in the Police Force from 1985 to 1992, finishing as a detective at Newtown. After completing his football career in Canberra, he became the first Independent to be elected in the ACT Legislative Assembly, and remained as an elected member for seven years. He is also a member of the ABC Sports team and is Operations Manager for the Rugby League Accredited Player agents scheme.
Growing up in Marrickville, Paul was a Newtown junior and began his grade career with St. George in 1985. He played 84 first grade games with the Dragons and starred in the club’s 1988 Panasonic Cup Final win. In 1992, the ball playing prop moved to Canberra where he played 51 first grade matches in his three seasons. A late replacement for the suspended John Lomax in the 1994 Grand Final against the Bulldogs, Paul was one of the best players on the field as the Raiders stormed to a 36-12 victory. Not only did the big prop set up tries for David Furner and Ken Nagas in the first 16 minutes of play, but he also defended strongly. At 34 years of age, it was the final match for Canberra captain, Mal Meninga.
After this highlight, Paul had three seasons with the West Belconnen club before retiring. Soon after, he was appointed as the Raiders Chairman of Selectors.
A committed Christian, Paul flew to Uganda in 2006 to hear a friend speak at a church convention. While in Africa, he became aware of the "Hope Rwanda" organisation and was very impressed with the work this charity does in the troubled country.
Upon returning to Australia, he wanted to become involved with "Hope Rwanda" and he made plans to go back to the country with his 14 year old son, where the two could share quality time together and also work on projects for the charity.
While he was making plans to fly back, Paul became aware of some negative stories involving NRL players. So he contacted Parramatta's Nathan Hindmarsh and the Wests Tigers Todd Payten about joining him. Things grew quickly after this and four more players agreed to become part of the experience. These men were Justin Poore (St. George), Jared Hickey (Bulldogs), Jared Waerea (Manly) and Todd Carney (then with the Raiders). News Limited sent a journalist and a photographer at their expense, while Paul arranged for his producer-friend, Wayne Davis, from the ABC and a film crew, to come along so a worthwhile DVD could be made of the visit. The party flew out of Sydney on 6 October (the day after the Grand Final) and returned on 17 October. The excellent 40 minute DVD has been shown on Fox television.
"Players do a lot of good in the community," Paul said, "and what happened in Rwanda proves this."
"If you can help, you should do what you can for people worse off than yourself."
"Africa desperately needs as much as the world can give."
Rwanda is a landlocked nation, in east central Africa bounded by Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. Its capital city, Kigali is just two degrees south of the equator. Around 1880 Germany controlled the country, but in 1923, after the First World War, Belgium was given a mandate to govern by the League of Nations. In July 1962, Rwanda was granted independence by the government of Belgium.
The country is fertile, hilly and about half the size of Scotland. There are three main ethnic groups, the Hutus, the Tutsis and the Twas, who were the original pygmy inhabitants.
The Hutus are the majority race and historically they have also been the dominant group. Tensions have festered for many years between the Hutus and the Tutsis and in 1994 this boiled over into one of the world's worse acts of genocide. In around 100 days between 800,000 and one million were brutally murdered. Often machetes were used and it did not matter if you were a man, a woman or a small child. Today there are many survivors missing arms or legs, or with horrific facial scars.
While Paul and his group laboured on building houses, schools and hospitals, they were taken on a three hour walk each way, day visit to the high country, where they mingled with the mountain gorillas, who were the same group with whom Dian Fossey lived around 1966. Fossey was murdered with a machete in this same region in 1985.
There are still problems in Rwanda but the inhabitants are doing everything they can to stabilise the country and make things comfortable for all the population. Paul is keen to return with other NRL groups at the end of this season and for many years to come. He has already begun a fundraising campaign for this year's visit, as have several other interested people, including Justin Poore, who will hold a function in July in the Wollongong area.