Despite having no formal qualifications, the Pondos were inspired to become teachers to educate and change the lives of children in their village, which is about an hour from Kokoda Station in the Sohe District of Northern Province.
When an opportunity arose in 2012 to attend a teaching course at Mamba, run by the Kokoda Track Foundation, they both jumped at the chance and applied. After graduating, the couple returned to Gorari and established a classroom made of bush materials to teach elementary school children aged five to eight years old.
