SETTING UP LIBRARIES IN PNG

Enjoying festivities: Sophie Cairns with some of the people in the tribe from the Western Highlands Province at the Goroko Show celebrations. Picture supplied

Gisborne resident Sophie Cairns from the charity From Me has recently returned from Papua New Guinea where she and some of the team helped set up libraries at schools in the Highlands region with books donated from across New Zealand. She shared her experience with Kim Parkinson . . .

The charity From Me chose PNG as the recipient of the books because the founders, Sam and Rachel O’Connell, had lived in the country as children. Sophie Cairns also spent her childhood in Papua New Guinea where her father worked for Deloitte, which has an office there.

It took three flights to get to the Papua New Guinea settlement of Goroka. Due to  minimal roading infrastructure between the major cities and the capital, driving was not an option — everything relies on aviation.

“We landed in Papua New Guinea on its 48th Independence Day,” Sophie says.

“Papua New Guineans are incredibly proud of their culture. Everywhere you look, you’d see a flag. Our first few days were spent attending the Goroka Show which is the first and biggest gathering of all the different tribes in PNG. It’s honestly incredible and for everyone who has a connection to PNG, it’s on their bucket list.”

After the show they headed from Goroka up to Kainantu in the Highlands region.

“We travelled along the ‘Highlanders Highway’ a famous route connecting a few of the main areas in the Highlands. For most of this journey you’re way above the clouds with the most incredible views, but the dodgiest roads,” she said.

Kainantu was chosen because that’s where their connections are. There are more than 50 schools that they’re hoping to reach in the area

“We had to make sure we chose schools across all districts in the region otherwise there was the potential for fights to break out.”

Kainantu is where Sam and Rachel grew up, where their Dad is based and where all their books and shipping containers are stored.

Kainantu township consists of the very basics.

It has a few tiny supermarkets, a giant outdoor market, a hospital that covers the entire district, and not a lot else.

“We certainly stuck out. For many rural people and especially school children, we were the first Europeans they had ever seen.”

They ended up creating seven libraries.

Six of them were full fit-out libraries with shelves, posters, chapter books, picture books, non-fiction, fiction, teachers’ resources, school journals, dictionaries and atlases.

“Our first three days in Kainantu were spent meeting with the area education commanders/inspectors, choosing schools, visiting schools and getting an idea of what infrastructure we were working with and making a plan.

“The following six days were spent creating the libraries. This involved filling up the local bread truck with books, piling all us Kiwis into the ute with at least two in the tray and driving for about 45 minutes each way to the schools on unsealed clay roads. The potholes are next level. We went over bridges made of wood with no sides or railings.”

People there lived in houses made of woven flax and other natural materials, said Sophie. Most teachers also lived on school grounds — it’s typical village life. Some schools had no running water.

“We visited one school that had the absolute basic donated technology, but aside from that there was no technology in sight. It’s all chalkboards and paper books.

“Some of the schools had space allocated for a library, but they didn’t have any books to fill it. The biggest problem here is a lack of resources and that’s exactly the gap that we want to fill.”

What struck them was that everyone wanted to read — it didn’t matter the age, she said.

“We saw old men (bubu) sitting down with picture books. We saw kids put down machetes and pick up books. We saw kids run out of the river and come to get books off us. Everyone wants to learn and everyone is just so grateful.”

They also dropped off books to a few elementary schools, villages along their drives, or local community organisations.

“We handed over some counters (from Kmart) to one of the teachers and she told us she didn’t need to use sticks and stones to teach counting anymore. She was so incredibly grateful. That particular comment has stuck with me.”

They visited a school that Sam and Rachel set up in 2019 and asked them how the library was going. The lead teacher told them that they’ve set up a library schedule and kids didn’t want to leave the library. Their literacy rate has improved and they’ve noticed a massive difference in the children’s speech.

“Comments like that are why we do what we do!” Sophie says.

“PNG has an incredibly positive attitude towards NZ. They love NZ. They love the culture, the haka and have a lot of respect for us. They were so grateful to every school and for every donation.

“A book to these people means the opportunity for a better future.”

Now Sophie is back in Gisborne she is starting to contact local schools to ask them about donating books. They plan to send a container up to PNG in early 2024 and will be going back again in September.

“Any sponsorship would also be amazing as we need to get books from around NZ up to our base in Auckland.”

They will be fundraising at the Book Fair in Auckland next month and as a non-profit they are always in need of assistance.

Other facts:

The reason the books are so valued in PNG is due to concerning literacy rate statistics there.

PNG has a literacy rate of

61 percent — the lowest in the Asia and Pacific region.

The biggest issue is the lack of resources or distribution of resources. There are also gender and social barriers, poverty and poor adult literacy and poor parent mindsets.

There are 70 students to one teacher and only around 50 percent of girls go to school compared to 61 percent of boys.

Only 23 percent reach the proficiency level by the end of primary school.

Most of the schools visited had on average 700 students.

Each classroom has between 40 - 80 students per teacher.

The main issue that stops children attending school is tribal fights between villages.

Most children speak three languages: English, tok pisisn (pidgin English) and their village tongue.