Morobe province

Bodies of the three deceased have been recovered. However, the fourth, a grade 11 student at Markham Secondary School, is still missing and is believed to be buried under the debris. 

His mother and family have gathered at the disaster site, covered in mud as a sign of mourning, waiting as other villagers dig through the rubble of soil and debris to find the son. 

Villagers say the landslide hit twice, the first at midnight and the second at 5 am. 

Member for Nawaeb, Theo Pelgen, said this road serves former public servants, ex civil workers, farmers and locals, who rely heavily on this section for access into Lae City and other parts of Morobe.

Scoping works were initially done in September by the Nawaeb District technical team (Allied PNG Group) prior to funding appropriations.

Work started last week and will give a facelift of the road Junction at Nabak towards the Labuta portion at Situm River.

Families got together, exchanged gifts and observed the festive season in their own backyards, with less pedestrians and commuters on the road.

St John Ambulance (SJA) noted that hotspots like East and West Taraka, Igam, Buimo and even 7^th Street were quiet.

“Our crew went into West Taraka – and some of these hotspots – and said the areas were quiet,” reported SJA Momase regional commander, Anderson Poumb.

“People were drinking alcohol but within their own premises. They were not being a nuisance on public roads.

Twenty-three (23) cases in total were attended to by the first responder, from the morning of December 25^th to Boxing Day.

People’s mindsets have slowly been changing over the years, thanks to the leadership of Lae City Authority and its stakeholders, including the Lae Metropolitan Command.

Drunken brawls, noise pollution and petty crimes – which used to be the scourge of festive periods in Lae – are slowly declining.

The days leading up to Christmas, and the festive period itself, were observed quietly and peacefully by residents.

The participants underwent a four-week Village Health Assistant (VHA) Training Program, supported by Hidden Valley Mine.

The training was led by four expert trainers from the Morobe Provincial Health Authority (MoPHA) and Bulolo District Health.

Wau-Waria District Administrator, John Orebut, expressed gratitude for the initiative and plans to provide additional support to the previous Village Birth Attendants (VBAs) and the newly trained VHAs.

This initiative is part of the USAID Women’s Global Development Prosperity (WGDP) Initiative, aiming to create equal opportunities for women in the workforce, business development, and entrepreneurship.

Morobe Province becomes the second region, after Madang, to implement a poultry rollout program, benefiting 11 women groups and over 400 individual women farmers and their households. USAID LGP, in collaboration with DOERS Agro Services, conducted a comprehensive three-day training from October 23 to 27, focusing on poultry (broiler) farming.

He believes we have the potential, as he himself has 10 cattle heads that were bred through artificial insemination on his Muamu Farm in the Huon Gulf district of Morobe Province.

Vanchum is a regular at the Morobe Show.

He won the ‘champion bull’ award last year, and managed to defend his title this year through his four-and-a-half-year-old Brahman bull, Bamsy.

“Wok blo mi, taim mi stap lo ples, em mi wok lo intrest olgeta lo bulmakau, lo lukautim,” he stated. (I am passionate about cattle farming.)

The ‘Nogat Marasin Campaign’, initiated by concerned Lae residents, presented a petition to Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge, last Monday (November 6^th).

Despite promising the group that he will raise the issue in the 2^nd Provincial Governors’ Conference on November 7^th and 8^th, he did not keep his word hence members of the campaign are planning on attending the Provincial Executive Council meeting tomorrow (November 14^th), to hold the governor and PEC members accountable.

He visited the road on Wednesday, November 8^th, with the Nawaeb District Technical Team, Ahi LLG President, Malcom Kalo and community representatives, Rosemary Wawou and landowner Ngalau Agi.

He assured the Ward 14 Community at Ahi Urban that the road upgrade will begin immediately; from Sigarap Market to Kunai Junction (1,450m).

An estimated 5,000-plus people from all over Papua New Guinea reside in the area, according to the local law and order committee.

Pelgen said funding allocation will be done to allow work to begin immediately.

While many call for tougher penalties to be implemented in schools, Duaro Embi is addressing this cycle of violence by equipping teachers through the school counsellors’ program.

He believes that helping students realise their mistakes and the repercussions of their decisions is the best approach and will mould them into becoming better citizens in future.

Embi is the non-formal school coordinator of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Morobe Province.