Southern Highlands Province

He was speaking during the graduation of the first Grade 10 students at the newly-established Kuare High School, Southern Highlands Province, over the weekend.

“Education is a vitally important tool for our national progress and the future of country, and education must be available right around Papua New Guinea,” states the PM.

“I am proud of our children who are going to school after many did not have the opportunity in the past, and now they must continue onto the next level of their education.

“I congratulate our young men and women who are graduating year ten.

Billy Sapsi Pokea of Suma village, Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, was committed by the District Court on May 19, 2015. He will  stand trial next Tuesday at the National Court.

Pokea, who seemed to have aged quite quickly due to his incarceration at Bomana, today appeared in court in crutches before Justice George Manuhu for mention.

He told the court he was still sorting out his legal representation because he intends to engage a private law firm to represent him and not the Public Solicitors office.

Initiated by Imbonggu MP Francis Awesa, the plan is to establish the vegetable depot with proper cool room, storage, marketing and distribution facilities.

Walume government station has been identified as the suitable site of the depot because of its central location as well as road, electricity and other infrastructure connection.

It is ideally situated along the Western and Southern Highlands highway at the junction of Ialibu-Pangia and Mendi-Kagua-Tari roads.

Their spokesman, Steven Apa said many small coffee growers in Southern Highlands Province were keen to learn best coffee growing and production practises, but no one was producing such services.

Apa cited example of many villagers are not using proper tools to prune coffee tree, but using bush knives and even axe to remove unwanted branches thereby destroying the coffee trees.

As well, he said people were using unconventional methods such and using their stone, timber and other implements to pulp cherry beans to produce parchment.

Community leader from the area, Chief More Kiyo said the upgrading was first since the road was built in 1985.

Chief Kiyo thanked Minister for Works and implementation Francis Awesa, also the Imbonggu MP for allocating K300,000 for the upgrading of the road.

He said the condition of the road had deteriorated over the years due to lack of maintenance and current upgrading was a big relief for vehicle owners and the travelling public.

Community leaders Job Wanpis of Yame village and George Rope of Tutam said their people greatly appreciated the K500,000 provided by Imbonggu government to carry out maintenance work on the road.

Messrs Wanpis and Rope said since the road was built during the former Australian colonial administration, there has never been any major upgrading work undertaken. 

They said Pororo, Yame, Pape and Tutam communities greatly appreciated the current upgrading work.

This was how the women’s representative in the IDDA, Lynette Ipuke, described the success of agriculture, livestock, fishing, vegetable and other projects undertaken by women in the district.

Ipuke said she was encouraged by the high rate of success among each woman who received financial assistance for various projects and activities.

She said given the successful use of the money by individual women projects, more money should be given to more women to projects of their choice.

The university will be built in Ialibu, Southern Highlands Province, on 75 hectares of land.

WPU project chairperson Fr Jan Czuba confirmed that they have negotiated with the landowners to acquire the 75 hectares of land.

19 hectares of land was secured last year from land owners of Ialibu at the cost of K15 million.

Last year, the Pekai-Aluwe tribe, landowners of Topopugl village of Ialibu, were paid K7.5 million, signifying the approval to use their land to build the university.

The visitors, who gave only their first names  are Leo and Alexander from Russia and from Ukraine are Myck and Dimitris.

Originally the group planned to visit the Kutubu resource project areas, but decided against it and returned to Mount Hagen, Western Highlands  on July 28.

In Mendi, the hitchhikers were accommodated by the President of Lower Mendi Local Level Government Peter Kundi and saw them off to Mount Hagen.

 A councillor from Kaupena, Robert Morombu, said it was a wise decision by the government to improve the “green gold” with loan financing from World Bank (International Development Association) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“Coffee is our lifeline. Oil and gas will run out but this green gold (coffee) is here to stay until the second coming of Jesus.

“We thank World Bank, IFAD and also the PNG Government for coming down to the village level to save our coffee gardens.”