Buk Bilong Pikinini

She is the coordinator of Telikom Foundation Inc (TFI) , who today launched its Foundation Donation Box.

The donation box captures two programs within itself:

• Donation of library books for school children
• Donation of items to be presented to the Children’s Ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital.

This is part of the foundation’s goal and vision to improve literacy in the country.

Bafmatuk said PNG has very low literacy rates.

With Literacy Week, Buk bilong Pikinini seeks to highlight the importance of education and for children to have access to books and literacy materials from an early age, due to the fact that about 85 percent of brain development happens in the first five year of a child’s life. Reading in these critical years significantly influences a child’s lifelong capacity to learn. 

It’s a challenge Buk Bilong Pikinini - a library for disadvantaged children, has undertaken since its establishment.

And with at least 18 libraries throughout the country now, BbP pushes for literacy to be everybody’s business.

Puma Energy has been on board since taking over from InterOil three years ago.

From fuelling the nation, the energy company has gone to fuelling the future by supporting BbP through fuel products worth over K100m to date.

As a charity organisation, the visitation is a show of support for non-government organisations. 

The hospital’s Director of Nursing Services, Freda Makanda, and the Oil Search Foundation’s Provincial Development Manager, Michael Conlon, visited the ward and distributed books to children and their parents.

 
Parents and children were very excited to receive the books to make their stay in hospital a little bit easier. The book’s colourful pictures stimulate the children’s imagination and colouring pages help them pass the time in hospital.

His mother waits for him to attend his class daily from 10am to 12pm before she takes him home.
Anna (Kenneth’s mother) says in his early days at home, “em no save kolim ol words gud tasol em save harim tok na biket sampela taim, nau em save toktok gud na spik inglis broken wan (he does not pronounce words clearly, he listens but sometimes disobeys us. Now, he pronounces words clearly in Pidgin and speaks Pidgin English).”