“Remember your mom,” was the key message delivered to graduands of the PNG University of Technology (Unitech) on Friday, the 08th of April, in Lae.
The Chancellor, Dame Jean Kekedo, reminded over 600 graduands of the tears and sacrifices their mothers make to see them succeed in life.
Unitech hosted its 53rd graduation ceremony after it was postponed in 2021 because of COVID-19.
Over 600 2020 cohorts were finally able to graduate this year under the theme: To grow world-class technocrats for the real world.
In her speech, Chancellor Dame Jean congratulated the parents whose loved ones were about to receive their doctorates, masters, degrees and diplomas.
She further reminded the graduands to never forget where they came from, and those who supported them throughout their years of schooling.
“The little that they had, they would have put it all into the education of their son or their daughter,” she stated.
“Talking to some students, they said ‘Oh my father gave me this money or that money’. But they don’t realise – especially a large number of students there – that their parents are just village people,” Dame Jean said.
“Their mother would’ve been working – subsistence farming – growing food, selling it to make money.”
Dame Jean, who grew up in Kokoda, Northern Province, said this was why she told the graduands to never forget their mothers.
“If she’s a highlander, she might need some new warm clothes, or go and get her some blankets,” Dame Jean suggested with a gentle smile.
The 73-year-old former commissioner to the United Kingdom had to raise her three children on her own following the untimely passing of her husband in 1993.
At that time, her eldest daughter was only 11 years old while her two sons were aged 4 and 9 months respectively.
She is no stranger to the struggles faced by a single mom, stressing that “a mother never forgets her children”.
(Unitech Chancellor, Dame Jean Kekedo, presenting Glenda Yatu her Master of Philosophy in Geomatics on Friday)