Two high profile Papua New Guineans have agreed to join the distinguished independent panel of judges for Digicel PNG Foundation’s 2016/17 Men of Honour Awards Cycle.
Digicel PNG Foundation Board Chairman, Douveri Henao, this week announced that Professor Betty Lovai will be judging the Allen Mahuru Posthumous Service Award and Dadi Toka Jnr will be the judge of the Young Man of Honour Award, two new categories that were launched last year.
Lovai is UPNG’s Executive Dean for the School of Humanities and Social Science and is a great advocate for social and gender issues, having gone beyond the call of her own capacity as a Dean at UPNG to offer her services and professional expertise for the betterment and development of PNG. She is a women who attributes her success to her father.
Toka Jnr on the other hand is a young entrepreneur who has great administration and enterprise skills and has been very much involved in volunteering for non-profit organisations.
Toka Jnr is currently the CEO of PNG Cancer Foundation and continues to involve himself in local community, sporting, educational and social organisations.
Lovai and Toka Jnr will be joining existing judges; Cassandra Rangip (Community Entrepreneur Award category), Dr. Erik Kwa (Community Education Champion Award category), Sarah Haoda-Todd (Community Leadership Award category), Jimmy Drekore (Community Ingenuity Award category) and Superintendent David Terry (Sporting Mentor Award category).
Henao thanked all the judges for accepting to be part of the Foundation’s campaign against violence and providing their experience, expertise and time for the judging process.
A total of 94 outstanding nominations were submitted by the public from all over PNG and the judges will now have the arduous task of screening and selecting the category finalists. Following this, they journey to the respective communities of the selected finalists to carry out interviews to determine the category winners.
The winners will then be announced at the Men of Honour Awards Gala Night on Saturday March 25, 2017 in Port Moresby.
The Foundation CEO, Beatrice Mahuru, said the awards could not be successful without the support of the individuals and groups who believe in the campaign, in the vision of a better and violence free Papua New Guinea.
Mahuru expressed special gratitude towards the following organisation for their support as category sponsors; Atlas Steel, Ela Motors, Hertz Leasemaster, Digicel Media Ventures and Digicel PNG Limited.
Mahuru made a special call for other companies sharing the same value and vision of a safer PNG, to come on board and support the campaign by sponsoring one of the new categories.
The Men of Honour Awards is an innovative campaign against violence, promoting ordinary men doing extraordinary things. The outcome is a brotherhood of 28 phenomenal Men of Honour Ambassadors coming together to influence positive change in their PNG communities.
Picture: Dr Betty Lovai and Dadi Toka Jnr join the other judges (above) on the Men of Honour Panel
