Lae city residents have united to host a ‘haus sore’ at the Raun Wara on Tuesday (today) and Wednesday.
Frustrated with the Morobe Provincial Government’s delayed response to the passing of the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, city residents are pushing to host a memorial at the Raun Wara.
Around 68 representatives from various organisations and wards attended the first meeting on March 4th at the Lae Bowls Club, where a nine-member committee was appointed.
From there, the committee members met with Lae City Authority chief executive officer, Neil Ellery, and voiced their concern over the provincial government’s lack of action as well as put forth their proposal to secure the Raun Wara area for the city’s memorial.
While the LCA shared similar sentiments with the group, Ellery advised that the LCA is only supporting the provincial government with logistics and some funding as it is the MPG’s responsibility to organise Morobe’s haus sore.
The committee then met with Charles Masange, the head of disaster and member of the provincial haus sore sub-committee, where they were eventually handed the Raun Wara area as well as full responsibility of the memorial program there.
The residents have started mowing the area as of Sunday evening following their third meeting at the Lae Bowls Club.
Locals have contributed ideas, equipment and skills to ensure the smooth running of their event while an open invitation has been issued to other likeminded members of the city to join the working group.
The Raun Wara haus sore program starts at 8am and ends at 3pm today and tomorrow (March 9). Schools and cultural groups will be taking part to commemorate and celebrate the life of Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.
At 3pm, the event will end to give residents time to attend the provincial government’s evening program at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium.