Sunshine Coast school continues to help PNG village
Sun 13 December 2009
Sarah Mahoney, Bachelor of Journalism
Chancellor State College and community members on the Sunshine Coast have worked towards improving quality of life in a Papua New Guinea (PNG) village for five years.
Since visiting PNG in 2004, Chancellor State College teacher Stephanie Kihlstrom’s efforts to make a difference in Miaru Village have inspired school students and stuff to undertake numerous fundraising and building projects.
Ms Kihlstrom and another former staff member, Lyn Thompson, were in PNG for a holiday in 2004 before visiting Miaru Village and meeting the local people.
“We met a teacher from the school and we just said to him that we were teachers and was there anything we could do to help…and his reply was ‘We have no paper and pens’,” Ms Kihlstrom said.
“So that’s how this project just started, quite by accident.”
Ms Kihlstrom was overwhelmed by the generosity shown after Chancellor State College donated large boxes of exercise books and stationery to Miaru Village.
The school’s ongoing relationship with Miaru Village has since grown, as Ms Kihlstrom and several Chancellor staff and students led travel expeditions to Miaru to help work on village projects.
Ms Kihlstrom has returned from another expedition this year, accompanying more donated goods to Miaru.
One Chancellor State College staff member’s husband, Mark Vaney, went on this year’s trip to work on small business development projects he began in 2007.
“To develop any sort of cash economy is extremely difficult for them to do without the tools, nearly impossible in fact,” Mr Vaney said.
“I was able to take them the tools and equipment and they were actually able to set up the machinery to start making money.”
Ms Kihlstrom said the trip was also a chance to check on the newly completed school library, built with the help of staff, students and community members who visited Miaru in 2007 and 2008.
Former Chancellor State College principal John Lockhart proposed the idea for building the school library after visiting Miaru in 2005.
“The school was the most shocking bit for me because it was so run down,” Mr Lockhart said.
“Dirty, sandy floor, no windows…you couldn’t even write on the black board with a bit of chalk because the board had faded so much.”
“I saw some timber in the back of the classroom and they said ‘That was for our new library, but we don’t have enough materials to finish it’.
“That’s when we got the idea to say ‘Well how about we work with you and do some fundraising and come back and help build the library?’.”
Ms Kihlstrom has also helped start a new Chancellor State College-funded academic scholarship program for young girls from Miaru Village wanting to attend high school.
“It’s said that the education of girls and women is the best way to increase the living standards in the third world, so that’s where I’m heading with this project,” Ms Kihlstrom said.
Ms Kihlstrom is hoping to plan another expedition project to Miaru with staff and students in 2011.
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