2019 recipient of Ruby Anne Laufa scholarship

The Miss Pacific Islands PNG Pageant has announced its 2019 recipient of the Ruby Anne Laufa memorial scholarship.

Monika Anio, who recently graduated with a law degree from UPNG, will receive the much-needed support to pursue her Legal Training Institute (LTI) studies so that she can be admitted to the bar as a lawyer.

During the announcement, the 23-year-old from Bukawa, in Morobe Province, thanked the committee for considering her a worthy recipient of the Ruby Anne Laufa Memorial Scholarship.

“I am empowered by this timely opportunity to be financially assisted in my training at the PNG Legal Training Institute and I choose to honour the memory of the Late Ruby Anne Laufa by persevering in my studies and to practice the real profession with distinction and the utmost candour,” Anio said.

“Most importantly, I am empowered more than ever to use the legal knowledge that I will be attaining to better advocate against all forms of violence and to do as much as I can, where I can, to assist those in need of a helping hand.

“I conclude with two quotes from Martin Luther King Jr: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter’ and ‘The time is always right to do what is right’.”

The MPIP committee introduced the award in 2017 to honour the Late Ruby Laufa, a former Miss PNG queen, who passed away on February 11, 2017.

The Late Laufa was to go back to complete her studies at the Legal Training Institute when she passed.

(Monika Anio, left, with Miss Pacific Islands, Leoshina Mercy Kariha)

Author: 
Carmella Gware