The Oceania Australia Foundation has come to the assistance of two PNG student athletes attending Cloud County Community College in Kansas, USA with a grant of $6,000 USD per annum each.
The grant will go towards the total cost of their education, board and lodging.
Robson Yinambe, gold medallist in the decathlon at the 2015 Pacific Games and Wesley Logorava, a member of the gold medal winning men’s 4*100m relay team jumped at the opportunity to take up studies at Cloud in January 2017.
Athletics PNG had only secured sufficient funding for Yinambe and Logorava’s first year and had been looking for sponsors to allow them to complete their programme at Cloud.
The Foundation responded favourably to a submission from the PNG Olympic Committee to support the two.
“This support takes away all the uncertainty over the continuation of this programme for Wesley and Robson” said Athletics PNG President Tony Green.
“The boys are extremely grateful to the Foundation for its support, as it means they don’t have to worry about payment of school fees, living expenses etc and can focus fully on their studies and training towards the Pacific Mini Games and Commonwealth Games.
Speaking on behalf of the Foundation, Executive Officer, Helen McMurray said that they had taken note that both students had excellent academic records.
“We hope that Robson and Wesley, with this support, will strengthen both their academic and athletic profiles and be able to secure scholarships in 2019 that will enable them to obtain university degrees.”
The Oceania Australia Foundation is a not for profit, non-political organisation located in Australia. One of its aims is to educate young people from disadvantaged communities, including by way of scholarships to overseas colleges.