Waima Elementary School in Central Province, and the community it serves had much to celebrate on Papua New Guinea’s 42nd Independence eve as they opened a new library funded by Digicel PNG Foundation.
“To be funded a classroom is a blessing but to be rewarded with a library is a beautiful miracle!” Waima Elder Baki exclaimed at the opening ceremony.
The Waima Elementary School was established in 1995 by the United Church mission agency. It has classes from E prep to E1-2.
In 2015, they successfully applied for a double classroom worth K140,000. In the ensuing years, this humble little school in the village continued to show sustained improvement in attrition, increased enrolment in numbers, clean school grounds and they even built a picket fence to keep animals out.
As such, they were rewarded with a library complete with solar, reading tables and forms, book shelves, librarian’s desk, chair and desktop computer. Together with the K125,000 library reward, the Foundation’s investment in the Waima village is K265,000.
“Our approach to rewarding schools who have shown community ownership and good governance after our initial investment is to ensure continued improvement and sustainability. Our approach to development is a hand up, not a hand out,” Digicel Foundation CEO Beatrice Mahuru said.
Established in October 2008, Digicel PNG Foundation has directly invested K77 million in PNG’s rural, remote and socially marginalised communities across all 22 provinces directly impacting over 750,000 people.