Launch of new publication "Child protection systems, childhood and children in Papua New Guinea with a focus on the Eastern Highlands"

Goroka, May 6, 2010: Division for Community Development of the Eastern Highlands Province and Save the Children organised launching of a new publication “Child protection systems, childhood and children in Papua New Guinea with a focus on the Eastern Highlands”.

More than 60 people including representatives of the provincial government divisions, international and local NGOs, CBOs and FBOs, donor and United Nations agencies, community people from settlement areas, and children attended the launch. 

Save the Children commissioned a review of child protection systems, childhood and children in PNG with an attempt to begin a process of re-evaluation of the circumstances and context of childhood.

Andy West, the author of the review report emphasises that publications issued over the last decade have documented violence against women and children. Focus on gender based violence is necessary, but this focus has led to less attention to being paid to prevailing adult attitudes to children and childhood, and to violence and abuse experienced by all groups of children up to age of 18 years, including boys.  

Lukautim Pikinini Act has brought a new emphasis on the protection of children from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. This requires a better and shared understanding of the context of contemporary childhood in Papua New Guinea and a renewed look at the problems facing children and the status of potential services needed for the implementation of the new Act.

The attitudes of adults towards children and the form of adult-children relationships underlie child protection problems and reactions to them, as pointed out by Andy West. Responding to the problems faced by children is of critical importance not only because of the long term physical and psychological effects and damage caused by violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, but also because children become adults and are likely to repeat such experiences against their own and other children.

The author emphasises that there is a need to look at both how boys and girls learn and how they are supported, undertake responsibilities, and take actions. It is particularly important to look at ideals and development of masculinity and the behaviors expected of men, how they learn it through boyhood, how they learn about femininity, and the roles expected from girls and women.

The study highlights that the contemporary forms of masculinity and femininity in PNG are developed and expressed in an environment of increasing and extensive social change. The outcomes of this social and economic change have altered the nature of childhood, and provide the background for the need to develop an active, comprehensive and operational child protection system.  The author provided with concrete recommendations on developing child protection systems.  

The participants of the launch warmly welcomed the findings and recommendations on developing child protection systems provided in the publication. They discussed ways how to take the recommendations forward.

The representatives of the Division for Community Development of EHP and Save the Children expressed that they will follow up to take concrete actions to realise the recommendations proposed in the publication to prevent and protect children from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in the province.

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Josephine Mill

Child Protection Officer

Division for Community Development

Eastern Highlands Province

jmill@savethechildren.org.pg

Phone: 72304900 and

 

Olonchimeg Dorjpurev

Child Protection Project Manager

Save the Children

olno@savethechildren.org.pg

Phone: 71501691

 

 

 

New pig feed technique a big hit

Peta Mills of AusAID and Morobe Governor Luther Wengechecking out the pig silage
Scientist Michael Dom (centre) with Highlands Pig Farmers’ Association president Moses Pala (left) and Tambul farmer Akilo Purunu

In traditional Papua New Guinea society, particularly in the Highlands, pigs are a sign of wealth, and a man with no pigs is seen as a “poor man”, a “nobody”.

Pigs are an essential commodity in feasts, bride price, funerals, compensation ceremonies, and many, many more.

Moreover, the bigger and fatter the big, the more the status of the owner, hence, pigs must be well fed rather than let around to feed on scraps and litter from the village.

In the Highlands, particularly the high-altitude areas such as Tambul in the Western Highlands and Sirunki in Enga, frosts are a common event and affect pig feed such as kaukau (sweet potatoes).

To overcome this, the National Agriculture Research institute (NARI) at Bubia outside Lae, on Wednesday this week launched its kaukau silage project at its Agricultural Innovations Show at Bubia.

The launch was quite timely, given the forecasted El Nino-induced drought in 2012, and the increasing cost of pig feed from shops.

Basically, how the system works, is that kaukau tubers, leaves and vines are ground up into pig feed and stored in airtight containers which can be stored for up to seven months.

There is no need for cooking the ground kaukau.

NARI scientist Michael Dom, who is spearheading the project, said pig farmers in the Highlands had adopted the technique with much enthusiasm.

“We have a lot of support, particularly from the Highlands Pig Farmers’ Association, which is the biggest pig farmers’ association in the country,” he said.

‘They’re very excited about the pig silage work.”

Mr Dom said pig farmers in Western Highlands, Southern Highlands and Enga provinces had taken to the silage project with much enthusiasm and they were now targeting the whole country.

Tambul pig farmer Akilo Purunu, one of the first to adopt the silage technique since 2007, said it was a very good concept.

“Tambul is an area that is prone to frost,” he said.

‘Now, with this silage technique, we can preserve food for our pigs months in advance of a frost.

“This silage technique has helped us a lot and we are very happy.”

Highlands Pig Farmers’ Association president Moses Pala also welcomed the concept.

“There are two good reasons for the ensilage technique,” he said.

“The first is that we can store food for our pigs for six months in advance,” he said.

“We also reduce our use of firewood to cook food for our pigs.”

Maladina petition a fact not lightly dismissed

From PAUL OATES

While the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister and his supporters apparently skulked in their caucus meeting, the Opposition Leader and four Morobe politicians accepted the petition of 20,000 signatures requesting the withdrawal of the Mandalina Amendment.
According to Opposition Leader Morauta, Parliamentary standing orders currently prevent the tabling of this petition as the matter is currently before parliament and has been deferred for further consultations.
However, surely the issue of whether the petition is tabled or not is totally irrelevant? That fact is that the petition exists and is a very public expression of the will of many PNG people on the matter.
The large public demonstration and the petition are facts the PNG government and Parliament cannot overlook. For anyone to ignore this significant milestone in PNG democracy and political history would be very unwise.
A line has been drawn in the sand and the people who drew it are now watching.

Umiversity of Goroka staff broaden linguistic knowledge by learning Japanese

In a positive step and continuing effort for the preservation of language and culture at the University of Goroka, a class of 21 staff members participated in the first Japanese language class held on Saturday, May 1, 2010 (pictured).

The class was conducted by Mr Hidemitsu Nakata, a JICA volunteer attached to the Language and Literature department, to teach staff members conversational Japanese until the end of first semester in July of this year.

The offering of Japanese language is part of the Language and Literature department’s recognition and support for the United Nation’s International Year of the Rapprochement of Cultures.

UNESCO has stated that languages “are the best vehicles of mutual understanding and tolerance. Respect for all cultures is a key factor for ensuring peaceful coexistence, without exclusion, of societies and all of their members”.

To recognise and celebrate the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures the Language and Literature department will also host two language seminars and two workshops on campus featuring experienced linguist and international translations expert Dr Ellis Deibler, who previously assisted UOG to compile and launch the Alekano language dictionary.

The seminars will be held on campus in the main quadrangle at 4.30pm on May 13 and 27 2010 respectively. Details of the workshops will be available at a later date.

Head of the Language and Literature department Ms Anne-Marie Wanamp said the idea of teaching Japanese to staff came about as “any dialogue requires basic knowledge about the ‘other’' including his or her history, language, heritage and religion, and we would like at least acknowledge that and promote this intercultural dialogue through the teaching of Japanese, French and Alekano”.

The Language and Literature department will also teach French and Alekano languages for beginners later in the year.

For further information on the seminars or to register your participation, please contact Mr Philip Tama on telephone: 5311 893 or email tamap@uog.ac.pg or Mr Lawrence K Gerry on telephone: 5311 747 or email gerryl@uog.ac.pg

A wake-up call for Lae

The iconic Lae Biscuit hard tack, long a symbol of the city
Politicians Luther Wenge, Bart Philemon and Theo Zurenuoc…increasing pressure from people to shape up or ship out
Landowner Kamkumung villagers, who freed up their customary land, performing at the opening of the Lae Biscuit Company factory
Lady Colette Chow and Sir Henry Chow with son Ian, Lae Biscuit Company managing director, with a Chinese guardian lion at the new factory in Lae


By MALUM NALU

For as long as I can remember, I have been eating the famous Lae Biscuit, whose packet is adorned by the trademark muscleman and the Tok Pisin catchphrase “Bikpela na Strongpela (Big and Strong)”.
Spread with butter, and then dipped into a cup of sweet tea, Lae Biscuit hard tacks were a breakfast favorite for many a child in those far-off pre-independence and immediate post-independence years.
They were also an essential commodity on those long rainy nights for which Lae is famous.
Lae Biscuit became an icon of Lae just like the Lae Botanical Gardens, Lae Airport, Cecil Hotel, China Town, Lae Bus Service, Jumi Cabco taxis, Theatre Lae, Huon Theatre, Lae Nius, Burns Philp and many more.
In those halcyon days, things like potholes, crime, squatter settlements, homebrew, marijuana, cholera and school fights involving guns and knives – the status quo of Lae – were unheard of.
The Bumbu River, which divides the city, was clean and unpolluted and we’d swim there for hours as well as dive and swim for prawns, fish and eels.
Lae was very much an interracial town in which little white, black and Chinese boys and girls mixed around together not knowing that our idyllic paradise would be destroyed in just one generation with the influx of people from the rural areas to the squatter settlements.
Glory day’s icons like Lae Botanical Gardens, Lae Airport, Lae Bus Service, Jumi Cabco Taxis, Theatre Lae, Huon Theatre, Lae Nius, Burns Philp and many more have gone.
Potholes, crime, squatter settlements, homebrew, marijuana and school fights involving guns and knives are now the new gods.
Little white, black and Chinese boys no longer mix around together in an interracial town as zombie-like youths –fueled by marijuana and homebrew – wander the streets of Lae armed with guns and knives in search of fresh prey.
“Baby tingting” (childish) politics is the order of the day in Lae and the people have long given up on politicians and public servants.
One icon, however, has survived this blitzkrieg of Lae and that is the Lae Biscuit of old with its trademark muscleman and the Tok Pisin catchphrase “Bikpela na Strongpela”.
For me, a Lae boy who is now 42, it was a privilege to be back home on Saturday, April 17, 2010, for the opening of the new K65 million Lae Biscuit Company factory at Kamkumung.
I have been away from Lae for 12 years now, having left with my late wife Hula in 1998 for the Highlands where we spent five years, and then Port Moresby for the last seven years, apart from the occasional work-related trip or holiday.
It was a joy to touch base again with many old friends, have a beer and reminisce about the good old days, as well as discuss the developments – or rather lack of them – over the last decade and our hopes and aspirations as we work for a better future for our children.
One common thread in our discussions was that the opening of the Lae Biscuit Company factory should be a wake-up call for Morobe politicians and publics servants from their Rip Van Winkle-like reverie.
So-called service providers like PNG Power, PNG Waterboard, Telikom PNG and Lae urban local level government really need to get off their haunches.
My cousin, Peter Kesu Sayama, is exactly the same age as me and we have been through primary school, high school, national high school and then university together.
Suffice to say, we grew up in Lae with so much hope for the future, and watched it destroyed in just one generation.
He now manages Butibam Progress Association for our people of Butibam village.
“Bro, constant blackouts everyday are part of everyday happenings here,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Apart from the economic boom in property development attributed to the LNG project, we are heading backwards in all aspects!
“Infrastructure and public services are falling apart with corrupt officials involved in getting rich while the rest suffer!
“The road maintenance and resealing are half done with never-ending potholes everywhere.
“ Angau Hospital and suburban clinics are rundown with no medicine, urban migration is leading to settlements cropping up everywhere, harassment of our woman and children in public areas by hooligans is prevalent , we are having to put with hold-ups, police are under-strength and unreliable, cost of food and services is sky high.
“Phew bro, we are struggling and living thru it all...in fact, this list is endless!
“Interestingly, our politicians don't give a damn about what's happening, just talk only and no action.
“Our beloved Lahi (Lae) is infested with 'animals’ and heading towards a major catastrophe!”
The long-suffering people of Lae – long disparaged as the ‘Pothole City’ of Papua New Guinea – saw a ray of sunshine with the opening of the new K65m Lae Biscuit Company factory by Governor General Sir Paulias Matane.
Hundreds of invited guests from PNG and overseas converged on Kamkumung for the opening.
The guest list read like a who’s who of PNG business, government and politics who were there to witness the opening of PNG’s largest single factory and the biggest stand-alone biscuit-making factory in the southern hemisphere.
Excitement ran high among the Lae business community and people as they saw this as an opportunity to shrug off some of the much-maligned ‘Pothole City’ tag and for the city to regain some of its lost glory.
This brand-new biscuit-manufacturing facility is a modern and functional one and is the biggest stand-alone biscuit-making factory in the Southern Hemisphere, comparable in standard with any similar factory in Australia.
It will provide employment to some 450 people and with some of the best-working conditions and remuneration packages in PNG.
It is a massive vote-of-confidence in Lae, Morobe province and PNG by a Chinese family which has come to call the country ‘home’.
Moreover, it is a shining example to the people of Lae, Morobe province and PNG of what can be achieved through singled-minded determination and sheer hard work, not the all-too-familiar time wasting that we are known for.
Longtime Lae Chamber of Commerce president Alan McLay had some good advice for the service providers.
“We issue this cautionary advice to the service providers - PNG Power, PNG Waterboard, Telikom PNG, and the Lae urban LLG - that whilst Lae Biscuits has shown confidence in Lae for this new development, they do, as indeed do all businesses, need good power, constant water, good communications and good roads so that they can continue to develop and produce quality yet competitive products,” he said.
“All these organisations have a responsibility to provide the services they are responsible for to a high quality standard.
“We do realise that these organisations have been working hard to upgrade their systems to reach the standards that are desired, but this has been hard to achieve because of the lack of past maintenance, and we hope that this maintenance will eventually catch up.”
It is my hope and prayer, and that of many of the mangi (boys) and meri (girls) Laes of my generation, that the opening of the Lae Biscuit Company is a loud wakeup call to everyone.
That like the phoenix, the mythical bird that rose from the ashes, will arise a new Lae which promises a better future for our children.

Morobe to fund new K1m research centre for NARI

Morobe Governor  Luther Wenge has pledged K1 million from the 2011 Morobe provincial budget for a new biotechnology centre to be built at the National Agriculture Research institute at Bubia outside Lae.

Mr Wenge said the centre would be named after NARI's current Director General Dr Raghunath Ghodake, who has been with the organisation since its inception in 1996.

"This biotechnology centre is a new initiative by NARI," he said at Bubia today.

"The centre will house general technology and specialised laboratories in the areas of pest and disease management and diagnostics, pathology and entomology laboratories, applied molecular biology including tissue culture and a post-harvest and food-processing laboratory.

"The biotechnology centre will house various offices for researchers.

"In addition, it will provide offices/rooms for the Geographic information Systems (GIS) and National Agriculture Information System (NAIS)."

Mr Wenge said applications of this centre included, among others, utilisation of modern technologies for faster and more-reliable identification of potentially-damaging pest and diseases and faster development of improved crop varieties, improved conservation and utilisation of plant and animal genetic resources in the country, and improved opportunities for value addition of food crops.

"Overall, this central facility will greatly enhance NARI's research for development capacity and provide support services to the agriculture sector in the country," he said.

NARI Council Chairman Dr John Kola gave a big vote of thanks to Mr Wenge for his support over the years, starting from 1997 when he fought tooth and nail against NARI's abolition.

"Thank you for your support since the beginning," he told Mr Wenge.

"When the Government wanted to abolish NARI, you, Governor Wenge, fought against it."    

NARI drought resource centre launched

Morobe Governor Luther Wenge today (Wednesday, May 05, 2010) launched the National Agriculture Research Institute's model resource centre as Papua New Guinea prepares for the next big El Nino-induced drought in 2010

This is part of NARI's plan to prepare rural communities in PNG for frequent and prolonged El Nino-induced drought events.

The National Government has provided Public Investment Programme (PIP) funding of K2.5 million to equip a network of resource centres throughout the country – operated by government, non-government and church organisations – with the information and resources to help communities cope with recurring drought events.

The most-imminent risk to PNG posed by climate change is the increased frequency of strong El Nino events and the severe drought conditions they bring to much of the country.

Following the drought of 1997, NARI developed a series of strategies to help communities adapt their traditional food production systems to cope with the effects of drought.

These strategies have since been publicised at NARI field events and open days in various parts of the highlands and lowlands.

Notwithstanding this, most rural communities in the highlands, lowlands and islands regions still do not have good access to the necessary information and resources to cope with prolonged drought conditions.

Mr Wenge, when launching the model resource centre, said he was proud to have fought against NARI's abolition by the National Government in 1997 and had now shown its true value to everyone in PNG.

This fact was earlier acknowledged by NARI director general Dr Raghunath Ghodake and council chairman Dr John Kola.

Mr Wenge said that in 1997, after only one year in existence, the Government wanted to do away with NARI but founding council chairman Sir Alkan Tololo, founding director general Valentine Kambori and himself dissuaded the Government from this.

"Today is a very important day for NARI, especially after the Government wanted to do away with it in 1998," he said.

"With God's help, the Government listened to us.

"NARI has come a long way since then and NARI has achieved a lot of things."

Mr Wenge said he had full confidence in the NARI team to help carry PNG through the expected 2012 drought.

"I'm confident that NARI has the scientific team to carry us through the expected 2010 drought," he said.