Morobe province

The Church takes care of over 100 street children and school dropouts, apart from its parishioners and hundreds of students from the St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.

On Thursday (April 18) afternoon, the parish proudly launched eight water tanks – six 9,000L and two 5,000L – worth K50,000 under the Digicel Foundation’s community grant.

The people of Markham, especially Zumim, will have the opportunity to showcase their culture and the skills that have been passed down for generations in the recently-launched ‘Markham Pottery Show’, which is scheduled to take place by the end of this year.

Since the swearing-in of its new members in November 2023, the Citizenship Advisory Committee has held four meetings so far, and has deliberated on over 80 applications from the National Capital District and Morobe.

This is to continue boosting the service mechanism in the district, under the leadership of local MP and Vice Minister for Treasury, Solen Loifa.

When making the presentation, the local MP said: “We will continue to work hard for Menyamya to progress. This is the time for us to work. Not to involve in political debates with people with hidden political interests on social media.

It was alluded that the diversion of traffic onto the footpath during roadworks on the Butibam-Malahang Road resulted in a crushed manhole.

JVPNGIC project engineer, Peter Garalom, said the excavation works started on February 7th for the 500-metre section and the bypass road was created on February 8th for light vehicles for residents and companies.

Assailants entered the Parer Street premises under the cover of darkness, incapacitated the lone guard and ransacked the newly opened centre.

Marie Stopes PNG Centers channel manager, Mellisah Agigo, and the Lae Centre team were on sight to inspect the damage to the new facility and account for the assets.

Ms Agigo said around K12,000 worth of items were taken, including laptops containing files for clinical quality that MSPNG highly maintains.

Wau-Waria is the first district in the country to utilise the Royal PNG Constabulary’s kina-for-kina programme.

In 2020, the two provinces who utilised the scheme were Madang and Northern. The scheme was then announced in December 2023 by the Internal Security Minister, Peter Tsiamalili Jnr, who told MPs in Parliament that to build police capacity in the provinces, the Constabulary would meet kina for kina in procuring vehicles and constructing accommodation.

St John Ambulance is based in Lae under a partnership with the Lae City Authority and Morobe Provincial Health Authority.  

Since the signing of the three-way agreement in 2020, the Lae City Authority has been supporting the ambulance operations with K500,000 every year.

The ambulance service, however, has no borders; emergency responders also serve the neighbouring districts of Huon Gulf and Nawaeb.

For the first time ever, the Huon Gulf district has jumped on board to support St John Ambulance with K50,000.

Following that, Member for Lae and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, extended the concerns to the Secretary for Department of Works and Highways (DOWH). 

“This road has been initially contracted and supervised by the DOWH,” said Rosso. 

“As a result, the DOWH conducted investigation and assessment on the failed sections and have responded by getting the contractor who built this section to rectify the failed pavement at cost to the contractor. 

“Hence, the contractor has commenced reconstruction work on the failed sections of the road pavement as of Wednesday. 

Markham Road, Taraka, Amba Demonstration and Huonville are being considered by the Morobe Provincial Education Board.

“This is so that we can absorb the majority of the students that are coming in from the primary schools,” confirmed the provincial program advisor for education, Keith Tangui.

Tangui alluded to the over-selection of Grade Nine students to secondary schools in Lae. As of this week, Busu Secondary had over 60 extra students, Bugandi over 50 and Lae Secondary had over 100 students left, even after creating an extra class.