My name is Thomas Ume and I come from Nabua Paka village along the old Hisiu Coast road, I am an engineer by profession and after years of working, I have retired home to help my people.
I am based in the village, I see the struggles and hardship my village people are facing and it is unbelievable.
For the city dwellers, we do not see what is happening in rural Papua New Guinea. For myself, because of my profession I was privileged to have traveled around many rural locations around the country.
I cannot believe that my people who are just 3-4 hours away from Moresby are struggling a lot and it is unbelievable. In a small way, I try to assist the people in terms of funding for road infrastructures, I own small machines and dump trucks and I put them to work every now and again when I have enough money.
When a Good Samaritan comes along and donates financially, this I use towards helping the people especially during the wet season. As being part of the community at some point in my life, I have walked that road and experienced a strenuous whole day’s walk in the heat and if you are carrying cargo, it becomes hard to express the hardships of traveling this way.
I have travelled by dinghy using paddles when there is no fuel and with the manpower available, it is still a difficult exercise as it drains you physically and emotionally and the travel can take up to two days and I feel for my people.
Even though I am privileged to have a better life and being educated overseas, I feel that it is also my duty to help my people. I have assisted many in paying for their children’s school fees as a way of contributing to the development of young people.
We cannot continue to give them money that will only help them for a day, so education is key that will help them for a lifetime. We accommodate them in our town homes to attend schools to get a better education. With that, they can help themselves and their families.
A lot of my time is spent in contributing to building teacher’s houses I purchase the materials to deliver these projects. I use my trucks to transport villager’s products and I help them in bargaining for affordable housing and classroom materials for building and water tanks through my reliable contacts.
I recently applied overseas to bring in a water project from New Zealand and I hope that they eventually respond positively so that we can build a proper water supply though a good water source up hill in the village put a gravity feed and it can remain consistent throughout the dry period.
This will help the villagers, especially the Principal who is from Goilala and teachers from Chimbu who come in every five days. I assist in transporting them to and from the village, it is vital that I try help out as much as is possible.
I would like to do all I can with the advantage of my educational and professional background plus the resources I have to give back to my people.
At the end of the day, when I go to sleep, I know that I have done something good for the community and contributed in improving their livelihood.
