Miss Relaxo 2021, Josie Nicholas, who recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting at Divine Word University will be donating books to Biotou Primary School in her home village of Biotou, Kairuku Hiri, Central Province. The young woman will be conducting a Book Drive as part of her advocacy. “My aim of this initiative is to see children especially back in my village of Kairuku, making it into high school since most of them do not make it that far. Therefore, donating reading materials to them will hopefully help them in the long run.” “As part of my advocacy, I am planning on donating reading books, resource books as well as book shelves  which will be for their school library. The targeted age of children that I would like to donate books to is five to sixteen years of age.” According to Nicholas, education is her main focus area in which she has been assigned to carry out her work. Schools such as Marianville Secondary and Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School are schools she visited to carry out her work. “Last year, my team and I visited Marianville Secondary School followed by Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School which I visited just two days ago,” Nicholas said. Nicholas stated that her visit to the schools was about sharing and passing on the message to the students in terms of the importance of education. “As an ex student, I felt it was only fair I go back to where it all started for me and encourage the young minds to come out in flying colors after their education journey and as an advocate for education, I am guided by my theme, “Education is the Power of Sustainability.” According to Nicholas, she visited over 2000 students starting from Elementary Prep to grade eight at Sacred Heart. She added that Team Relaxo donated three boxers of footwear to the school as well as gift packages. “This wouldn’t have been made possible if it wasn’t for the support from our sponsor, Relaxo PNG. My team and I would like to acknowledge them for their endless support and to Miss PNG Pageant for creating an avenue for us to go back to our communities and put our advocacy into action.” Nicholas is one of the contestants who will be contesting in this year's Miss PNG Pageant. She has also encouraged those who are willing to assist in donating books can do so by reaching her via email on missrelaxopng@gmail.com

Jacks of PNG on Wednesday celebrated a series of achievements at their Waigani Central store in Port Moresby. This includes celebrating its 7th year Anniversary, the opening of its refurbished Waigani Central Store, the launching of the new XL Sports Store and the Launching of the New Jacks of PNG Uniform. CEO of CPL group Mr. Navin Raju, made this announcement, saying that it was an honor as the day marks another achievement for the company. He said that despite going through some of the toughest challenge including the pandemic, the staff have managed to pull through with their continuous determination. With that Jacks of PNG are now celebrating their seventh year of business with nothing but success in how far they’ve come. “As part of CPL group’s vision, we intend to help Papua New Guineans live healthy and with this launching of the new XL Sports Store, we hope to make a difference by providing better equipment’s with quality products at an affordable price.” Raju also commended the hardworking staff of Jacks of PNG for providing excellent customer experience. He said that the group value of being responsible in the team does a lot of work in the community especially partnership with the local designers PNG designs giving platform to the local designing artist and to earn income. In addition to this, Jacks of PNG has engaged with a number of renowned designers in terms of designing clothing such as the New Jacks of PNG Uniform. Wandid Amini Korimbo, Director and fashion designer at Niugini Native Limited, has engaged actively with the company with her recent design work, has accomplished her task in designing the new Jacks of PNG's new uniform. “ It took me about a month to come up with a design that can really portray Papua New Guinea as a whole since we are a diverse country.” “In my designs, I included a bit of everything that represents culture from each province of the country.” Korimbo thanked Jacks of PNG and CPL group for engaging her and giving her an opportunity in doing something good for the company. Raju concluded that with the series of events celebrated, the company is continuing their work in providing exceptional customer services and with now the new XL sports store put in place, it aims to motivate people to excel in sports.

Maprik Secondary School in East Sepik Province, have received a number of beneficial projects this year including a new Computer Lab as well as a new upcoming girls dormitory. The new Computer Lab is provided with Internet Service all set up and provided for by The National Information & Communications Technology Authority (NICTA). Principal of Maprik Secondary, Mr Alfred Akai, said the students have started using the lab since the start of the school year and it has been of great help to them in terms of doing their research. He added that NICTA will also assist the school with a new E-Library to use soon. “With the new lab put in place, access to studies have been made easier for the students who can now complete assignments and given tasks. Another new project that we are also looking forward to is a new girls’ double-story dormitory that is nearing its completion.” According to Akai, the dormitory comprises of a total of 80 rooms; 40 upstairs and downstairs. At a total cost of K1.3 million,  K700, 000 was counter-funded by National Panning Department and the remaining cost funded by the school’s project fees. Apart from the addition of new projects, Maprik Secondary are giving students a second chance in their education by providing FODE classes. “Students from grade nine to twelve who have failed, have been given an opportunity to upgrade and apply back into the system to continue their studies.” Akai added that students from other schools who have also failed in their studies, also attend FODE at the school campus just to attend the classes and to submit assignments. He said that this is also a government directive and that the Maprik Sec has been running FODE classes in the school for 3 years now. Another directive given by the Government, is the Free Education Policy. Akai said that though education is free for students, parents and guardians are still required to pay project fees to the school despite policy put in place. “The reason being that this has to be done in order to keep the school running. Project fees are an essential tool in providing for the school.”

Famous for his two songs, “Lewa” and “Life Ino Easy More”, Mal Meninga Kuri was the featured artist of the month under the Yumi FM Local Strings Wantem Nescafe Original 3 in 1. Kuri shared with Yumi FM and with his fans, a glimpse into his musical career as a local artist and how he rose to stardom. At the age of 13, Kuri had a passion for music where he started writing songs for fun. He was inspired by some great singers in the likes of Gedix Atege at the local scene and international band, MLTR. He would put in a lot of effort into writing lyrics, Kuri recalls. “We have heard stories of so many things in our lives; therefore, what I want to do is to put them in a song form so people will listen and understand through lyrics so that they can feel motivated and inspired since music is a universal language,” Kuri said. In 2004, the young aspiring artist went to Port Moresby where he attended Wardstrip Demonstration Primary School where he continued to write songs during his free time and recalled back to his schooling days when his best friend who was also into making music, would help him record a few of his songs. “My best friend recorded at least two of my songs and my family would hear these songs and encourage me to sing more which gave me motivation.” “From then onwards, I wrote a number of songs and gave them to a few famous singers back then to sing them for me. At an early age, I created a lot of local songs but they were never released,” said Kuri. It was not until 2013 that Kuri’s first song successfully got released and thereafter, that Kuri went on to successfully release a good number of his singles. Kuri has now been in the Music Industry for twenty years and said that he has enjoyed his time making music for his fans. “I love to promote PNG music, especially Engan music as I see a lot of upcoming talents from my province who have the passion for singing. For my case, I want to give a different taste to the audience and try to use the Engan language in different styles of music.” ‘Mali Music’ is the Music Brand Name in which his songs come under. Kuri has said that for this year, he will be doing merchandises like shirts, caps, bags, etc and looks forward to introducing his new line of merchandise soon. He expressed how excited he is and for what the year has in store for him. Kuri will be hosting an upcoming gig on the 1st of April live and exclusive at Club Illusion in Port Moresby followed by another live performance in Lae, Morobe Province at Club 99. The purpose of the performance in Lae is for school fee fundraising for the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (UNITECH) Enga Students Association, which will be held on the 9th of April. “During these events, I will be performing and singing most of my hit songs from 2018 to 2021 and will also be singing three of my new releases that are currently on the YumiFM Top 20s and NauFM Top 25 which are ‘Lewa’, ‘Life Ino Easy More’ and Kaimi.” Kuri added that he will also be performing at a two-day event in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands Province. The first day will be on the 22nd of April in which there will be a Kid’s Show and on the 23rd, a live performance at Sunrise Club. “Apart from performing in Papua New Guinea, I am also planning ahead to perform abroad for a Queensland and NSW Tour on September of this year, in hopefully eight different venues.” In addition to his plans for the year, Kuri is currently working on a new Album called ‘Malinizim Heart’. He has so far released six songs from that album which are Bonus Tracks whilst nine are yet to be released totaling to fifteen songs altogether for the Album alone. Kuri is thankful to his fans for the support and for the encouragement. He added that it is because of them that he is where he is today and hopes to maintain a good relationship with his fans through his music.

The students and staff of Kopkop College in Port Moresby celebrated National Women’s Day last week Thursday under the theme; “Gender Equality today for a Sustainable tomorrow.” Students from Grade 1 to 12 each presented an item based on the theme of the event including a drama, debate, dances and songs. The day itself portrayed the significance and importance of women and girls in a society and for a country like PNG where most societies are male dominated, the students celebrated and portrayed how important the role of a woman. Zachary Samol, a grade 11 student, said that celebrating the day itself is important as it helps vocalize the message that the students are trying to bring across and that is mainly to break all bias mindsets and cultural differences. “Celebrating the day will have an immense positive impact if it’s being practiced more on the value of women and to see that everyone should be treated as equal.” “Let’s put ourselves in each other’s shoes, feel and think how the opposite gender would feel if we were to do something that was going to hurt them. How would you feel? The purpose of celebrating this day is to acknowledge and valuing women in our society and to treat each other as equals.” Another student also had something similar to say. Guy Kitoro who is a Grade 12 science student, said that celebrating National Women’s Day really helps young people at this level so that they are taught and can be able to better understand the importance and value of women and the impact they can have on the society. “Teaching and celebrating National Women’s Day at the school level is an advantage to change the mindset of youths when it comes to Gender Equality and to break the Bias.” Issues such as culture, sexual harassment and gender equality were the main highlights of the event that were portrayed and showcased by the students in getting the message across as these are real trending issues that occur almost every day in the country.

The Free Education Policy that has been put in place this year by the Government has caused a lot of issues for schools including Utmei Secondary School. Though it has been an advantage for students and parents in terms of paying lesser school fees, schools have been affected by the policy in terms of the school running on a daily basis. According to Principal, Mr. Bernard Manau, the school has seen an increase in enrollment of students this year, compared to last year. He said that in the previous year, a residential student paid an amount of K1,900 whilst a non- residential student paid K1,300. Since the implementation of the policy, a residential student now pays a sum of K380 while a non- residential student has paid K260. He said that as a result of this, enrolment for this year has increased. For this year, the number of students has increased bringing the total up to 838 students, whereas last year the school had only 751 students. “The number of students in a class and in the dormitories has increased causing overcrowding of students. Last year a grade 9 classroom alone had 48 students whereas for this year, has gone up to 56 students.” “For boarding students, the total number of students stood at 450 last year, compared to this year where it has gone up to 530 students in total. As a result of this, we had to increase our dining hall by putting in more tables and hiring another extra cook to help prepare the meals.” Manau said that an appeal has been made to the Gazelle District to help assist with more funds but is still awaiting a response. Thankfully, the Government has assisted the school for the first term alone with K219, 000. Manau says he hopes that the fund given may just be enough to bring them through the first term considering the fact that necessities need to be paid such as food, electricity, power and other additional costs as well such as maintenance. “The Government has also assisted at the beginning of the year with the remaining from last year’s share worth K186, 000. This amount has however, has been used to pay the outstanding costs and fees for last year.” Manau has also commended the parents of the students for their continuous support who are still very much helping in terms of project fees. He said that though the policy has been put in place, parents still assist wherever they can.

Team RAKA Boxing League will be hosting a FIGHT NIGHT Tournament organized by one of PNG’s Professional boxer himself, Mr. Junior Kauko Raka. The six month tournament which was initially supposed to start on the 20th of this month, has been put on hold following the death of the Patron of PNG Boxing and Former Kavieng MP, Mr. Ben Micah. “For now, teams have been preparing themselves well for the tournament with a total of seventeen teams confirmed to take part. Each team/club has a total of sixteen boxers each, for both the women and men’s team.” “Our focus for this tournament is to appoint the best amateur boxers who will take part in our professional boxing competitions especially in the Pacific Games and also in other major tournaments that will represent the country.” Raka further added that the venue as well as the winning prize for the tournament has not yet been confirmed at this time but will be announced later on after everything has been finalized. House of Pain Boxing Club, Waigani, is amongst the other clubs who will be taking part in the tournament. According to Coach, Mr. Nelson Kosipi, the team had no time to waste and proceeded straight into training after successfully registering their team. Kosipi who is also a professional boxer himself, stated that the team is divided into two divisions which are the Cadet and Novice. Raka is now awaiting confirmation on what programs will be carried out during the Haus Krai of the Late Mr. Ben Micah so that he can prepare the other boxers in terms of their contribution towards the Haus Krai and Funeral programs. He added that everything will commence once funeral and burial arrangements have been made and that everything is complete and over and done with. “As per our respect, everything regarding boxing will be put on hold as this is the time of mourning for our boxing family. From Team Raka and other boxers in NCD and around the country, we would like to pass our sincere condolence to the family of the Late Mr. Ben Micah” Furthermore, Raka has advised that registrations for the tournament is still open and teams interested to take part can do so by paying a fee of K200 in order to secure a spot.

Nine candidates have been successfully selected under the Kokoda’s Track Foundation Archer Leadership Development Program for 2022. The announcement of these candidates was made this week at the Airways Hotel in Port Moresby. Apart from the announcement, was also the graduation of the 2020 and 2021 cohorts who successfully completed the program. The nine young men and women under the 2022 Development program are from tertiary institutions in PNG including University of Technology (UNITECH) and University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). They were selected based on their merit, leadership potential and the desire to serve their communities and country as young leaders. According to the CEO of KTF, Dr. Genevieve Nelson, the students participating in this program, are chosen based on their leadership skills who have strong visions and are committed to social justice and change for the country. She added that it was quite a difficult task of interviewing and selecting the 2022 Archer leaders. “Due to Covid-19, a total of 16 students who undertook the leadership program in 2020 and 2021 were unable to travel to Australia. Fortunately for this year, I am delighted to announce that they will be joining the 2022 cohort and they will all be coming to Australia to participate in the leadership exchange program.” The Archer leadership program is generously cofounded by the Fred P Archer trust and Newcrest Mining and is now in its 12th year of the Development Program of finding and fostering a new generation of leaders for PNG. Nelson stated that it has been their greatest privilege to work with young leaders under this leadership program. “The Archer program is a unique one it takes students out of their comfort zone and it’s purposely designed to hold an effective, challenge mindset and create network with very good people like you to give you young people a platform to create social change.” Amongst the Cohorts who graduated in the leadership program, was a 2021 cohort who shared her experience as to what the program has done for her. Andrea Masta, who is currently a residence medical officer at Port Moresby General Hospital, said that the Archer Leadership Development Program was a very transformative experience for her as this has not only helped her but has always given her an opportunity in prospering herself in this leadership program. “I would like to thank the CEO of KTF, Dr. Genevieve as well as the COO of KTF, Mr. Mike Nelson, the KTF team and Newcrest Mining for providing not only myself but my fellow peers an opportunity in achieving something good.” According to Nelson, KTF has not only provided Leadership programs, but has also taken part in other community programs including providing education through their Kokoda College and providing health care services in the Kokoda Catchment Region. She concluded that KTF aims to help and provide more services and programs to help improve the livelihood of people especially youths who she believes will make a change in the future if provided a good education.  

Tanaka Primary School in East New Britain Province will soon become a Junior High School as of next year with new intakes of grade 9s and grade 10s coming in. Headmaster of Tanaka Primary, Mr. Kuki Sero, made this announcement recently saying that this year will be the year where infrastructural preparations will be carried out with funding to be made available by the Kokopo District.ra “In preparation of next year’s new intakes, a new 4 in 1 classroom will also be part of the school’s main project including the renovations of classrooms in the school.” “We already have a new 4 in 1 classroom that was built for us last year which was funded by the Gazelle District and are now looking forward for another new classroom.” Sero added that the school shares borders with both the Gazelle and the Kokopo District so the school usually seeks funding from both Districts. Apart from this, Sero has stated that the school is currently facing an increase in student population as well. [caption id="attachment_19649" align="alignnone" width="869"] Teaching Staff of Tanaka Primary School[/caption] This is following the recent burning down of classrooms last month at Kabagap Primary School where the students had no choice but to enroll at other schools to continue their studies thus the student increase at Tanaka Primary. “Kabagap Primary is our sister school as it is just near Tanaka Primary. We have made an exception to continue registrations and enrollment for these students since last week and will continue until next week Friday.” Sero stated that next week Friday will be the last day before registrations close. He added that if students are thinking of enrolling with the school, then they should do so now. According to Sero, five students from Kabagap Primary have so far registered with the school with a few more expected to so over the coming days. “In case more students come in, we are planning on using the staff room and library as a classroom to cater for the extra students due to the fact the current classrooms are already occupied by the students of Tanaka Primary.” In addition to this, Sero also added that some of the students of Kabagap Primary are also enrolling at other schools which has made it easier for Tanaka Primary to share the load of accommodating the displaced students.

The University of Papua New Guinea’s (UPNG) School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) recently presented their four-year strategic operational plan to the UPNG Council. According to Executive Dean Professor Leo Marai, the strategic plan is to be carried out from 2022- 2025. He stated that the aim of the plan is to re-engineer the school by achieving academic excellence for the next four years. He added that the document took two months to work on by the Strategic team. “This Strategic operational plan will guide us and provide clear direction for our efforts in order to deliver excellence and management research, teaching and learning at a school level.” Marai added that the plan also emphasizes that the school will maintain existing partnerships and build new ones for more great research and publications including a review of academic programs especially at a course graduate level. “The strategic plan will depend on all academic staff members and administration to deliver our council’s targets through their respective work plans. I will monitor the operational plan and make sure that the structure is followed regularly through strand meetings, resource committee meetings and other committee meetings in the school.” According to Marai, he said that by 2025, the school should have achieved most of the targets that are set out in the plan. He also thanked the strategic team for their contribution in creating this document including young academics whom he believes will lead the way for the school. In addition to this, the UPNG Vice Chancellor, Professor Frank Griffin has commended the Executive Dean as well as the staff of SHSS for putting together a great document that will bring the school forward. He added that upon his meeting with the Executive Dean regarding the planning of the Strategic Plan, he realized that there was not much explanation or guidance needed because the school already had a council skeletal framework of what the strategic plan is going to turn out to be. “I saw that they already knew what the key areas of interventions were. I also saw that they had all the goals there and then in front of them and that the only advice I gave was that they start discussing what they want to achieve in 2025 and work backwards from there.” “With that, the document presented was structured in a professional way with clear guidelines and targets they wanted to achieve by 2025 and with the result of that discussion, I have seen that has gone beyond what I expected with very clear guidelines of what the school wants to achieve.” Griffin has also urged all other schools and Open College in the University to come up a with a well-articulated strategic plan in order to be able to operate as a University with one goal in mind to reposition the University and transform it from this year onward. He thanked Mr Marai for a good job and that the school has now come to the first part of their production of the strategic plan. Griffin added that the council will now take a look at it and will make cosmetic changes if needed in which the school will be made aware of as well. He concluded that the easy part is now done which is putting the plan together with the hard part now approaching which is the implementation.

St Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Port Moresby yesterday opened a new 3-storey learning facility comprised of a staff room, department offices, an audio visual room, computer labs for the upper secondary classes, a prayer room, sick bay and an SRC office. The Project initially began in March last year and was completed only last month. Principal of St. Charles Lwanga, Bro. Joymon Mathew said the total funding of the project was K1.9 million. He said K1million came from the project fees paid in by parents, K500, 000 came from the Department of National Planning and Monitoring Division and K400, 000 taken from the Catholic Church. “With the new facility put in place, we strive to get more funding support and improve the learning facilities in the school to provide quality education to our students.” Bro. Joymon added that the new learning facility building is a P&C project, approved by the parents and guardians of 2021 and 2022. In the past, the P&C was the main financial contributor for the many infrastructure projects in the school. “I would like to thank the parents for their support towards the infrastructures of the school with now the new 3-storey building. I would also like to thank the Department of National Planning and the Church for their help for making this happen.” The Learning Facility was officially opened and blessed by Cardinal His Eminence Archbishop Sir John Ribat. Upon the blessing, he encouraged the teachers, staff and parents to continue their work in praying for the students and forming them into being someone great by preparing them well for what the future holds for them. Despite the opening of the new facility, Bro. Joymon said that the school is still in need of infrastructural projects to take place including more grade 7 and 8 classrooms as well as teachers houses. Joymon commended the parents for their continuous support mainly towards the infrastructures of the school.

Divine Word University welcomed a total of 1,689 students to the campus as of last week Friday. According to the President of DWU, Professor Fr Philp Gibbs, most of these students have not yet registered as they are yet to sort out their school fees. He said that though registrations have closed last Friday, he has given students as of yesterday to register. “For the Registrations that took place for one week starting from the 7th to the 11th of February, many of the students did not register due to a number of factors. Factors including; flight disruptions as well as HECAS students not being issued their tickets on time from the DHERST office.” “This is why we decided that registrations be extended for another week but no more than the 18th of February. We however, gave students as of yesterday to complete their registrations since we saw that many of them are still yet to register.” In addition to this, Professor Gibbs stated that word has been sent out to those who are on the reserved list that there is space available for them. These students have been given yesterday and today to secure a place for themselves in the institution. “Unfortunately, with these reserved students will not be given accommodation by the university as the dorm facilities are pretty full at this stage.” “These students can only be registered under non-residential in which they would have to have to look for their own accommodation outside the campus.” As unfortunate as it sounds, Professor Gibbs said that there has to be strictly two students per room and with more students coming in, there is not enough space to cater for those. Professor Gibbs added that there are not enough funds to cater for more dormitories. Apart from this, Professor Gibbs stated that out of the 1, 689 students who came in for registrations, only 461 were vaccinated and about 27% of the students presented flu-like symptoms when they came in for their medical check-up before registering. “These students were referred to our Covid nurse for further testing. Apart from that, I am happy for those students who made the decision to get vaccinated. Though that it is not half of the students in the campus, this is an effort.” Professor Gibbs concluded that despite this, for those students who have already registered, have begun classes last week and are now in their second week of school.