A couple from Mt Hagen have appealed to the public to help find their daughter who went missing last Thursday at the Gordon’s Market in Port Moresby. Crystal Daniel, aged 3, was last seen running out of the gate of Gordon’s Market around 5.30pm on Thursday afternoon. Her mother, Jennifer Daniel who sells kaukau for a living at Gordons Market said that her daughter was playing with a couple of kids not far from where she was selling her produce. “I was sorting out the kaukau on our market table for about a minute and when I looked up to where she was playing, I couldn’t see her anymore.” Crystal’s mother said that it was unusual for her daughter to go missing because they always go to Gordon’s Market every day to sell their goods. “Every day when we both come here to sell, she always plays with the other kids from the market not far from where I sit.” On that Thursday afternoon, Crystal’s mother realized she was gone when she tried looking for her amongst the other kids playing. It was then that she alerted others at the market.” Her mother then made her way to the Gordons Police Station where she reported the matter and filed for a missing person’s report. Crystal’s uncle, Jonah, has been assisting her mother in searching for her but unfortunately they have not received any feedback yet from anyone including the police. Crystal’s father who is based up in Hagen also heard about the incident and has made his way to Port Moresby to search for his daughter. The parents and family of Crystal have made an appeal to the general public to help find their missing daughter and to provide information of her whereabouts should they see her anywhere. To date, there has been no word from the Police as well as their family members. Crystal’s poster has been displayed around Gordons area where the search continues and the family has also put up a reward to anyone who finds her and brings her safely to her parents. If anyone has seen or heard of Crystal’s whereabouts, please do not hesitate to contact her mother Jennifer on 71874851 or her uncle Jonah on 79190219 or alternatively alert the police at Gordon’s Police Station.

“Accept what is, let go what was and have faith in what will be”. This was the theme for the Daffodil Day event hosted on Friday by the Cancer Foundation at the Port Moresby General Hospital. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the lives of those fighting cancer as well as promote this month’s cancer awareness and to create a public health education forum. Coordinator of the Oncology Unit, Dr Peter Olali explained the meaning of the day as a way of celebrating those fighting cancer and at the same time creating awareness about the different types of cancer. “Daffodil Day is basically to celebrate every form of cancer. As for this month, we try to give hope to each of these cancer patients as we commemorate this special day.” Olali explained how cancer can come about; either as a lifestyle disease or as a genetic composition. He added that cancer is the third common cause of death in the country after HIV and Aids and Tuberculosis. Olali said that cancer can be a devastating time for patients as well as for their family, that is why events like the Daffodil Day are celebrated to provide them with a sense of hope and comfort. Among invited guests, were also survivors who gave their testimonies of the how they dealt with cancer. Rakara Raula, a mother of three children and survivor of cancer spoke about the encounters she faced when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. “Cancer came as a shock to me; I didn’t know how to take it. My cancer was detected at an early stage in which I had to undergo chemo therapy as part of my treatment.” Raula said that she had to go through a lot of treatments and tests, including four cycles of two different chemo therapy and thirty cycles of radiation. “I fought this cancer since 2019, and now I have been cancer free for two years however, it is important that we must change our lifestyle in terms of eating healthy food, taking part in physical activities and making sure that our body has enough rest.” Raula expressed how she always had faith in God whom she knew, blessed her with doctors who were able to help her heal. Though it was a devastating time for her and her family, she never gave up. She concluded by encouraging all young ladies and women to go for a regular checkup and to every person to change their lifestyle in order to live a longer and healthier life. The Cancer Unit is proud to host this event as they continue to help cancer patients by giving them the best treatment they need and to promote awareness to as many communities as they can about cancer and how it can be avoided.

The Divine Word University recently hosted its’ first Virtual Open Day last Saturday at the Madang Campus. The Open Day brought together all the faculties in the university which included the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Faculty of Business & Informatics, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The Virtual Open Day was initiated by the President of Divine Word University Fr. Philip Gibbs, who advised that it was a safer and easier way to conduct the event due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “With the previous open days, we tend to have big crowds of people coming together for such an event like this, therefore we have decided to proceed with hosting a Virtual Open Day here at the campus where people can still be part of the event via online means.” Fr. Gibbs said that the people can still be informed of what is happening during the event through the aid of modern technology. All faculties together with the organizing committee met together to discuss and plan out on how the virtual Open Day would be portrayed and carried out. “The preparations of the event took about three months where each faculty was required to prepare film clips and a virtual guide tour of the University.” The DWU President said that they experienced a number of challenges given that it was virtual Open Day instead of the traditional way of hosting the event on campus. He added that a number of things had to be checked thoroughly prior to the event such as the technology requirements, the webinar on zoom and the live streaming on Facebook all of which were technically challenging for the organisers. “Since this was an online event, we had to make sure we did not experience any problems mainly with the power source, the internet, and to make sure all videos were of high quality and at a sufficient standard.” Fr. Gibbs said that the event is likely to happen again virtually next year depending on the Covid-19 situation. He further stressed that the majority of the people in Madang must be vaccinated if they want to attend an actual Open Day at the campus. “From the perspective of people living in Madang, there wasn’t really a good feedback, being that they wanted to attend just like every other year with only a few in the province benefiting from Virtual Open Day.” However, President Gibbs said despite this, there was a good response in terms of the national perspective of people in other parts of the country and also from overseas who were able to join in on the Virtual Open Day. “The outcome has been good so far; statistics will have to be improved with more viewers watching the event live on Facebook.” “I really think that this event has pushed DWU in taking another step up in terms of operating on a modern level.” It has been challenging, but that challenge has meant that we had to learn and operate at a higher level which is part of the learning process.” Fr. Gibbs added that the committee is set to schedule meetings to evaluate on what was done well and what could be improved for future virtual Open Days.

Paradise Private Hospital in partnership with Capital Insurance Group and Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a press conference followed by the screening of a documentary at the Paradise Cinema in Vision City. The documentary “Life in the Ward”, is the second of a series of episodes aimed at creating awareness about the COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout with Professor Glen Mola playing a leading role in the film as a scientific contributor. The film is part of a series of documentaries that focus on some of the most pressing medical issues in the country, starting from the first episode which was about family planning. The series of documentaries are produced by Film-BRO, an audiovisual company who produces and creates awareness on issues such as health through films in PNG. Director for Administration of Paradise Private Hospital, Janet Sios, said that they were more than happy to be the main sponsor of this event especially the screening of the documentary. “We are proud that Paradise Private Hospital is endeavoring on getting the message out on such important issues for health.” “The main reason as to why we are sponsoring this event is mainly being proactive in bringing awareness starting with family planning which was showcased in the first episode,” Sios said. Sios added that their main focus was to get all Papua New Guineans to understand the importance of working together in getting everyone vaccinated. “It is important that we all get vaccinated so that we can all go back to a normal life and also protect ourselves from this pandemic.” Director of the documentary, Marco Venditti also stated that the purpose of the documentary was to showcase the hard work of doctors in PNG and how much effort they put into their work. “I know how hard doctors work.” “They treat so many people on a daily basis with very little capacity, medicine and poor infrastructures, but yet, work so hard at what they do.” Mr Venditti said. Venditti also added that Film-BRO’s main ambition is to produce these kinds of films which will tell compelling and real-life stories about the people. Community Engagement Officer Mr. Adrian Wamp of Capital Insurance Group who are part sponsors of the event said that the company was more than happy to support the event. “It is our pleasure to help assist, being that health and wellness are part of our key sponsorship areas.” “We want to help communities and this is one way of helping them; creating awareness to help them better understand the advantages of getting the vaccination which will lead to a safe and healthy life.” The documentary is currently showing at the Paradise Cinemas and will be going on for the next two weeks. The Series of Documentaries has a total of five episodes relating to the healthcare system in the country, with the third episode focusing on infectious diseases, followed by the fourth which is on Lifestyle diseases and the fifth being about Rural Health.

A Youth Empowerment Seminar took place at UPNG today with the aim of influencing social change. The seminar will go on for eight weeks starting with today as the first seminar. Facilitator of the seminar, Mr Nigel Akuani, said that the main purpose of this seminar is to teach young people to become critical consumers of information rather than being mere observers that passively absorb every bit of information presented. “The seminar itself is basically to inform youths on the need to always question every information they absorb and to give them the ability to distinguish between facts from fake news and more importantly to instill in them the need to become proactive.” Mr Akuani, a youth coordinator attached with the Catholic Bishops Conference said that he took up this initiative because he believes that young people can be dynamic and powerful if properly harnessed and given the right forms of platforms and opportunities to build themselves. “In my line of work, I work closely with youths and students and in my experience from travelling around parts of PNG, I’ve seen that youths can make a difference.” Akuani said that this is a capacity-building training program for youths which will help aspire them to become leaders. The session today covered a number of topics needed to positively build a youth followed by a three-speaker panel including Mr Akuani himself. Akuani encouraged both youths and adults to join in this session and to also join in on the other sessions that will be taking place over the next eight weeks.

Queenpads PNG conducted a 2-day awareness program recently in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province. The purpose of the awareness was to educate girls and women as well as males on the topic of menstrual health and hygiene. Founder of Queenpads PNG, Anne Shirley Korave, said that Goroka was one of the few provinces that Queenpads has visited so far. The main target audience for the awareness were school girls and female employees. “We reached out to four schools in Goroka which we have visited and spoke to the female students and also the male students as well about better understanding the process as a normal and a special one.” “It was a good experience to see young boys involving themselves in the discussions which was a huge breaking barrier for us thus making it a good experience,” Ms Korave said. Queenpads PNG who are working in partnership with the Sir Brian Bell Foundation, specializes in both the production of reusable pads and conducting of awareness programs. According to Shirley, through their awareness sessions, Queenpads aims to start breaking the cultural and social barriers and also to break the silence in the communities when it comes to the topic of menstrual hygiene. “We aim to break the silence amongst the females for them to see menstruation as something normal iand that they should not be afraid and ashamed of talking about it.” “Due to the strong cultural backgrounds and traditions in our country, we at Queenpads do our best to teach communities on the importance of this topic and are really happy that we were able to reach many communities since we started out,” said Anne-Shirley. Queenpads have so far visited three provinces including Mt Hagen, Lae and their recent trip which was to Goroka. According to Shirley, the outcome of the sessions have been good so far with a lot of positive feedbacks given and they hope to maintain it that way when visiting other provinces as well. “After our sessions, each participant was given a ‘Let’s Talk period” flyer plus the distribution of reusable Queenpads, followed by a 10 minutes question time if they had any questions or clarifications about what we do at Queenpads PNG.” This way we are sure that the message we deliver is clear enough for them,” Ms Korave said. Queenpads PNG started as an initiative for those who couldn’t afford menstrual pads beginning with the creation of sample pads and how to make them reusable. Ms Korave said that a lot of research and effort had to be put into how to make pads reusable and safe to use. This included testing them as well. She concluded that with the successful production of pads, Queenpads have ventured into helping young girls and women out there. “We began in Moresby where we started off at a few schools and settlement areas and after seeing a lot of positive feedbacks, we decided to branch out to other parts of the country as well.” Shirley advised all young women and girls not to be ashamed but to embrace what they are going through as it is a normal process for women. Queenpads PNG will continue their awareness in Madang, Kokopo and Kimbe Province.

The UPNG West New Britain Student's Association are currently raising funds for their end of year project- A Book Drive. This is to support rural schools back in the province who do not have enough resources to learn. UPNG WNBSA President, Zeal Dau said that the students came up with the initiative of schools helping schools to improve the standards of learning especially in the rural areas. “The purpose of the fundraising is to raise funds to finance our end of the year ending project (Book Drive), also to cater for freight, clearance, and shipment of boxes to the province.” “As students, we know the struggles of what it is like not having the privilege of resources such as text books. Therefore, we wanted to help other students back in our home Provinces, especially those in the rural areas.” “With our limited capacity, we are working hard by hosting fundraisers whilst concentrating on our studies.” Dau said that the UPNG WNBSA have called on the Provincial Government by submitting a funding request proposal to help support the goals and aim of the students. The WNBSA is set to continue its fundraising drive today at the campus, followed by a major one which will be hosted next week Sunday.

The DWU Unity Rugby League Team will be taking part in this year’s Vice Chancellor’s Cup which will take place on the 21st to the 23rd of this month in Port Moresby. The 3-day tournament will be hosted by the University of Papua New Guinea. President of the DWU Unity rugby team, Mr. Joel James, said that the team has started competitions at the beginning of the academic year followed by selections of the best players who will be representing DWU and competing in the VC cup. “We have prepared ourselves in advance with two weeks left for training before we head into the tournament.” “Based on the performance of each player, we have selected only twenty best players out of forty to take part in this year’s Vice Chancellors Cup.” James said that as the president, he has faith in the players that have been selected and hopes that they will win the VC Cup. “As the president, I have spoken many times to my team and trained them in the best ways possible in order for them to perform well and I have indeed seen a great change in them during the two weeks of training,” Team President James said. Divine Word University will be sponsoring the team together with the SRC committee. The team is also raising funds as well to cover the costs of their travelling air fares and accommodation. “We appeal to both the DWU community and the Madang community to support wherever they can in our fundraising activities,” James said.

The Spartans rugby league club have showcased their best performance during the Ezi Cruzers Mayor’s 7s over the weekend at the DWU Rugby Oval  in Madang. The two-day tournament was hosted by Divine Word University. Spartans Coach, Joseph Mocke Jnr, said that the team which consists of young talented Madang youths, performed so well thus leading them to the grand finals. “I was very happy for the way my team executed the game on Saturday and on Sunday as well for the grand final.” “I didn’t expect them to be fully prepared as we had only trained for two weeks however, I was really proud of the turnout of the games in which we took out fourth place,” Mocke said. The Spartans coach said that though the team had lost to the 6B Pirates on Sunday, being in the grand final alone really showed how far they had come as a team in terms of performance which gives them hope to do more activities of such nature in order to keep the team spirit burning. “For me personally as a PNG Pukpuks World Cup 7s rep, I love what I do because it’s one way in which I can give back and share to the community what I’ve learnt at the international stage with respect to rugby,” Mocke said. Mocke further stressed that the main purpose of creating the team was basically to provide an opportunity for the youths to get themselves involved in positive things that will enrich their lives and in turn refrain from getting involved in negative activities. “We encourage participation from youths in the community to help them to change bad habits and at the same time create a platform for change through sports.” “This activity will help change their mind sets and influence them to take responsibility for their actions and to be respectful members of the community,” said Coach Mocke. Mocke added that most of these youths are unemployed which causes them to resort to petty crimes, therefore, sporting activities and initiatives like the Ezi Cruzers Mayor’s 7s are good for them to get themselves occupied. The tournament itself consisted of twelve teams including, the winning team which was the 6B Pirates who went home with the grand prize of K1, 000. Mocke expressed his thanks to the Madang Town Mayor, Mr. Ishmael Yama for his efforts in sponsoring the tournament and hopes that this is just the beginning of more sporting activities to come.

The University of Papua New Guinea's SRC Inter-School Debate is set to commence this month starting off with the preliminary rounds followed by the finals. The debate is based on the theme, “Road to Vision 2050: Where are we?”, and comprises six teams from each of the schools in the University. The six teams include the School of Law, School of Medicine, School of Physical Sciences, School of Humanities, School of Business, and also a team formed by external students. Chairperson of the Inter-school debate competition, Mr. Shahar Shalom Yadin, said the main purpose of this debate competition is to aspire students to do some extra curriculum activities outside of their ordinary classes. “The debate will teach the students to ponder upon things that goes just beyond their studies and also to experience some practical experience in terms of presenting, arguing and debating.” Yadin said the debate competition which is formed by the SRC academic’s committee finally became active after four years due to COVID-19. He said the SRC has decided to use the state policy of vision 2050 with its seven pillars which focuses on the development of PNG to be used in this year’s debate. “The idea is to stimulate discussion and have a competitive activity that involves all students in rethinking vision 2050 and the different targets and goals.” Yadin thanked the SRC Academic’s Committee for taking the initiative to start the Inter-school Debate Competition which will enhance all students from every year levels by providing them with both fun and creative competitive activities. “We provide with such fun, creative and inspiring events outside the context of just studying from books and from lectures in class which turns out to be boring for them.” According to Yadin, the committee have allowed each school to run its own internal competitions in their respective schools followed by their selection process in order to form the best team that they can come up with to represent them in the inter-school competition. “I have to say these schools have been taking the debate seriously by running their own competition and seeking judgments mainly from the final year students in order to form the best team.” Yadin said that the prizes of the winning team are determined by the sponsors. He added that the SRC Academic Committee has so far establish contacts with three potential sponsors. Yadin concluded that the preliminary round starts on the 16th and 19th of this month, followed by the semi-finals which will be held on the 24th and the finals which is on the 28th.

The Agmark Rabaul Gurias have lost to PRK Mendi Muruks in Round Nine of the Digicel Cup in Lae last weekend, with a full-time score at 20-8 in favor of the Muruks. Gurias Coach Markus Kaugla said the team faced many factors but the most obvious was the team’s individual mental preparations for the game itself. “The team did not play to their best as per our preparations and this all comes back to the players on the day.” Kaugla said that the team didn’t perform well in the first half but picked up momentum in the second half however it was too late to catch up. “Training preparations were so far good but the executions were really something that was entirely up to the players to perform on that day.” Kaugla concluded that the team needs to win two more games in the upcoming match in order to rise up in the ladder. “Fortunately, the next two games will be played on home ground which gives us an advantage, however doesn’t give us any reason to relax. We still got a lot of work to do,” Kaugla said. The Gurias are currently on the sixth position on the ladder after their loss to PRK Mendi Muruks and are anticipating to win the next two games against Moni Plus NCDC Port Moresby Vipers and the EPG Enga Mioks in order to make it into the finals’ playoffs.

The DWU Madang Alumni Chapter will be hosting their first official meeting and fundraising event this coming Saturday at Vidar, NCR, Madang. Alumni spokesperson, Rex Sos, said that the purpose of these two events is to first of all appoint office bearers and at the same time host a ‘Bung Wantem Barbeque’ for a worthy cause. He said that this will give a chance for all Alumni’s to officially meet and get to know each other. “Networking is very important and powerful. The Alumni itself is made up of very unique intelligent minds thus bringing all DWU Alumni together and in this way, we all can continue to make a great change in our community.” Sos said that the DWU Madang Alumni had been dormant for a while unlike the POM Chapter and the ENB Chapter therefore, after a number of informal gatherings, they all decided that a DWU Madang Alumni chapter be formed again. “In our first formal meeting, we will appoint office bearers and then our next agenda is on how we will assist the DWU Pastoral Team to raise funds for the renovation of the DWU Chapel.” “At the Barbeque fundraiser, a president, vice president and secretary will be appointed to formally carry the chapter forward,” said Sos. Sos added that so far there are 100 plus DWU Alumni residing in Madang. He further added that the Chapter hopes for bigger plans for Madang. “We want to take lead, be a model chapter, at the same time work side by side with DWU.” The Madang DWU Alumni has sent an open invitation to all other Alumni in Madang to join the team this Saturday and encouraged them to visit the DWU Alumni page on Facebook for more updates.