Access to clean, fresh water will not be a problem for the patrons of the St Michael’s Catholic church at Eriku, Lae.
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.
Fr Vinod D’mello was a successful recipient of the 2022 community grant.
Fr Vinod drew attention to the work of the Sisters of Charity, who take in the sick and those in need from the streets. He outlined that the water tanks would go a long way in helping them carry out their mission and that of the church.
The parish had completed the project last year but due to situations beyond their control, the opening of the water project was moved to this year.
The community and students were encouraged to take ownership of the invaluable assets.
The Foundation has invested over K8 million into Morobe Province through the construction of school and health facilities, ambulances and community and staff grant projects.
In all the 96 districts of PNG though, Digicel Foundation has invested K169 million, with Imatana emphasising that they do this because they believe that where Digicel, as a business grows, so too must its communities.
The foundation’s community grants program, which was launched in 2019, has delivered over 70 grants in 20 provinces. Applications for this year’s grants will open in a few months.