Community based rehabilitation for PWDs is a need

 As the PNG economy faces a downtown, many people in our country are going through tough times. Yes the price of goods and services is rising rapidly and many services like health and education are becoming unattainable for many people in our country. But spare a thought for People with Disabilities (PWDs) who continue to suffer most. If able bodied people are having a hard time and consider themselves 'suffering' then what more can we can for people living with disabilities! They are even facing a situation far more worse. 

I met two staff of the Madang Creative Self Help Centre who visited PWDs along the rural north coast road villages in Madang as part of their community based rehabilitation program. I tagged along with them as they travelled to the north coast of Madang to conduct their community based rehabilitation program for people living with a disability. We visited villages along the north coast road such as Megiar, Dylup and Tokain. 

I believe one of the saddest part of our trip was hearing that two of the PWDs had passed away recently. One was a PWD that has mobility issues - the PWD did not have a wheelchair so that person crawled using their hands.  Usually the PWDs with mobility issues would have wheelchairs but I think you also have to note that many rural areas in PNG are not suitable for wheelchairs as the ground surface is uneven and jagged in many places. There needs to be more innovation in developing mobility equipment for PWDs that fit the PNG landscape. 

The Madang Creative Self Help Centre can do so much as it is also limited in its capacity. The Centre runs two programs a) A community rehabilitation program b) Inclusive Education Program. The inclusive education program is one where children within the Madang town vicinity who have a disability can get an early childhood education. The program is supported by the PNG Government through the National Department of Education. The Community Based Rehabilitation program, on the other hand, is run by the centre and is entirely voluntary. Its focus is on supporting the inclusion and participation of PWDs in Madang's development and livlihood.  

An Amazing Manusian

 Yesterday afternoon, as I sat with my two boys in the Lutheran Memorial Church, it finally dawned on me that our country had truly lost one of its nation builders. I was among a large group of people who had gathered at this Lutheran Chapel in Madang town to witness the funeral mass for the late Major (Retired) Francis Malikes Molean. He was born on 8th September 1947 and had died in 19th August 2024. He had resided in Madang for 33 years but he was M'Buke island in Manus. He really did live a full life with challenges, triumph, sacrifices and great victories. 

He was around 17 or 18 years of age doing his studies at the Kerevat National High when the Australian Navy came for recruitment. He jumped at the opportunity and never looked back. Over the years I have been told of his exploits and quite amazed that he sought little recognition for his achievements. I mean how many Papua New Guineans can say that they have sailed the famous Sydney to Hobart Race or took part in the Vietnam War when he was with the Australian Navy? He was also a President of the then Sopmu Malai Bay in the Manus Provincial Government system, a lecturer at the PNG Maritime College, captained the Madang Resort's star vessels such as the Melanesian Discoverer. 

If ever any young Manusian wanted to look for inspiration to succeed, they neednt look far. Francis Molean was such a strong character and overcomer. His impeccable record in the PNG and Australian Navy still stand strong and his role in community development, academia and government are greatly respected and admired among many Manusians and Papua New Guineans. 

Making decisions about life

One of the things I often see among young people is the so many times, in their life while at University, they are faced with multiple decisions. The decision making process can be done quickly while at other times, it can take a few days to contemplate. This is especially decisions on academic progress. Students may make decisions on less complicated matters such as attending classes, participate in assignments or work in groups. There are more serious decisions that affect their academic programs like quitting school, falling pregnant, being involved in toxic gender relationships, etc. Therefore, having someone else, who has gone through these life matters, talk to you.

Part of the DWU campus in Madang town

The Communication Arts students were fortunate to have someone in that caliber speak to them to provide a heads up and motivate them in their academic progress in the afternoon.  A Communication Arts Alumni Mr. Jeremy Mark travelled all the way from Lae to come speak to the students in Madang. He met with 30 students or so, especially third and fourth year students about the changing media landscape in the country and how students should prepare themselves for the realities of life before graduating. It was a great learning experience when a graduate spoke to them - those who are just starting their journey - so it makes the lessons in class seem more relevant and purposeful. Jeremy last completed his Bachelor in Communication Arts in 2004. I did write his story on my other blog a few years ago here 

Jeremy Mark to the Communication Arts students 

Some students pose it Jeremy Mark

Jeremy now works in Lae, Morobe Province and travelled with his wife and three kids up to Madang.

Jeremy and his wife Grandlyn Mark also took time out to talk to the student body in the evening. The DWU Student Services Department together with the Chaplain run a psychoeducational program which focuses on students' life, learning, communication and social relations. 

Yesterday night, the topic was on 'healthy relationships' and the students got to hear from the two graduates - Jeremy and Grandlyn Mark. I loved how they gave their own versions of their story and the advice to students on managing life, love, relationships and knowing their first obligations to parents who put them there in the first place. The evening session was insightful, funny at times and outlined some key strategies to deal with relationships, especially for young people. 

Grandlyn Mark tells her story about life and social relations

Jeremy Mark talks to the student body

It is always important for DWU Alumni to come back the University to provide and give back by running sessions like what Mr and Mrs Mark have done. It helps students develops and reinforces beliefs around hard work, being resourceful and being grateful for the opportunity to get an education at a place like Divine Word University. 

Here is a short video documenting their talk to DWU students:

UNRE to gain K6million from Balsa sales

 When I saw this newspaper article about the University of Natural Resources and Environment (UNRE), I was pleasantly surprised!

I mean our country is going though a very difficult time economically. Prices of goods and services are growing higher making the actual running of organizations, financially difficult. But here was an organisation in PNG that was making some really good money despite the economic downturn. It truly showed great leadership and management in making this a reality.

 

Post Courier 31st July, 2024

What I admired about this university was its ability to generate its own income despite the neglect tertiary institutions face where the Government has failed release grants to them for student scholarships - HELP and TESAS.

In this difficult times, more and more educational institutions are begining to take this path of raising their own revenue to fulfill govenment delayed funding. Good on them!

Harnessing people partnerships

 In teaching students, I have tried to include people outside of my circle to speak from their space to my students. This allows the students to listen to perspectives they would otherwise not have known. It encourages them to see how theoretical lessons in class can translate into meaningful projects and processes in the workplace. While I have not recorded all these sessions, the ones I have listed on my blog include Roslyn Albaniel and Ruth Waram some years ago. However, this semester, I decided that it would be good to go down this path again as the unit I was taking was new and needed fresh ideas from other people than me.

The first person to accept my invitation was Bronwyn Kili. As a youth activist, she talked about here experiences of using social media/digital media to run numerous social and community campaigns she was part of. 

She emphasized the role of planning particularly in developing communication plans and strategies. In that two hour period, she talked and explained concepts and ideas around social media use in Papua New Guinea and gave tips on interactive use of social media apps. 

The next person that accepted my invitation was Helen Tuka. She has worked in various organisations over the years and completed a Master of Communication from RMIT in Melbourne Australia. She now works as the Marketing Director for DWU. 

She talked about marketing strategies that the University uses particularly those on social media. She also focused on how 'branding' is important in maintaining corporate identity and recognition of products/services. She also focused on the challenges faced by organisations as they improve their corporate branding and create a communication strategy. 

The last person to come speak to my students was Picky Airi. Mr. Airi is the Director for the Center for Learning and Teaching at DWU. He did a session on using software applications in developing animations. He pointed out the various applications such as Doodly, Toonly and Videoscribe. During the session, the students installed the software called Videoscribe on their laptop and then proceeded to develop a short story animation.

He showed them the use of workflow and demonstrated that is an iterative process and students could utilize a variety of propriety software, open source software and also AI. 

In conclusion, I must say this: Getting communication specialists to show how theoretical knowledge is practiced in the workplace enables students to understand the value of what they are learning in class. The three speakers demonstrated application of key social media and digital communication skills during their sessions and thus promoted the sharing of knowledge to the young people of the next generation. 

My sincere gratitude and many thanks to Bronwyn, Picky and Helen for their time and effort in these sessions.  

Its a wonderful morning!

 

May 3rd is Media Freedom Day

Today is the 3rd of May. We often put this day down on our calendar as 'Media Freedom Day' - a day dedicated to remember and celebrate the work of journalists and media workers. This year's theme:  A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis, encouraged all of us to reconsider how we, as news reporters, journalists and communications people report and inform the public on rising environmental issues and climate change. 

The students of the Communication Arts (CA) Department at Divine Word University in Madang took to the schools in the surrounding community to inform them of the remembrance and magnitude of the Media Freedom in light of rising climate and environmental issues. 

At first assembly on a Friday morning, the first group of CA students arrived at Kusbau Primary School. The school currently has 1,700 students and 53 teachers and CA students quickly adapted to the use of loud hailer and began their engagement with the student body during school assembly. 

 Then at around 11am the next group of CA students visited Lutheran Day Primary School and talked to five classes of grade 7 students. The students of Lutheran Day Primary School were inquisitive, asked questions and prizes of DWU diaries and DWU calendars were given to students as well.  

Another group did visit Tusbab Secondary School but I did not tag along with them. Instead, I again went with another group who visited Holy Spirit Primary School. This is a large school that filled the hall. Even though I did not get official numbers, the students that attended the awareness were from grades 6, 7 and 8. 

Yes today was an eventful day and we hoped we did justice to the day to remember the work of journalists all around the world. To remember those who have fallen and suffered because of their role in seeking the truth and to celebrate the fundamental principles of journalism.  

Today, the CA students held their own in front of so many of these primary school students. It was nerve wrecking for some while for others, it was continuation of their professional growth as public speakers. I admired how they carried themselves and spoke on climate change, environmental issues and simple ways we, as Papua New Guineans, can help inform ourselves of these issues and address them in our communities. 

Some day, these students will become professionals and look back and reflect upon their lives as students and I know this will definitely be a highlight for many of them.  HAPPY MEDIA FREEDOM DAY!

Hibiscus on the fresh earth

This afternoon I saw something that unsettled me. 

There was a burial of a person in the public cemetery. There were around 12 people there. Around four women were crying - their voices already weak and raw after much crying - as the body was lowered into the ground while two men quickly dumped spades of ground over the casket. The rest of the group just slumped down in the shade of the metal fence that ran alongside the cemetery, hiding from the overpowering afternoon sun. 

The thing that struck me as something different was that those 12 people were the only people there. There were no cars or flowers or groups of people or sad songs as is commonly seen during burial ceremonies. They all wore black clothes but they seemed like they just wanted to bury the body and then go home quickly. I was thinking that it might have been a person who was not thought of well in the community or a criminal thus it seemed no one wanted to come and say their last goodbye.

I walked away and an hour later I came by the cemetery. Everyone had left by then. I saw the place of burial and it was an unmarked grave with just three or four hibiscus flowers heaped together on the fresh earth. That's all. Nothing more. Truly, we came into this world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing. Blessed is the name of the Lord!!!!!!

The public cemetery was overgrown with grass and a beaten track runs through it

Flight Simulation on Google Pro

 I'm sure many people know this already but I didn't!

I found out just today that you can actually do a flight simulation on Google Pro. on your laptop. So naturally, I did a flight simulation over Lorengau town😀🤣. The images on the Lorengau map are from a few years back but its ok. You can click on two locations eg: Momote and Lorengau and the flight takes you from point A to Point B while you see places. 

Coming in from highway into Lorengau

Flying in from the north coast over Lorengau town

Google Earth Pro is a software that you can download on your desktop or on your mobile device

Using keyboard keys is good but for those that have a gaming joystick, you can really control the flight indicators well like speed and height above ground. I used the keyboard keys and of course crashed multiple times! 

Yes I did this using Digicel data so was good to move and maneuver.

Newspapers in PNG can reduce sports gambling among young people

 Gambling in many countries is often thought of as a form of entertainment, characterized by betting or wagering something valuable or financial such as money (WHO, 2024). The furthest I have delved into gambling may have been playing Bingo when I was in the village over the Christmas holidays. But believe me when I say that gambling has risen in Papua New Guinea especially among vulnerable groups such as young people (ABC Pacific, 2023).

Casino gambling came into the scene through the passing by PNG Parliament of the Gaming Control Bill 2007 that allows casinos and internet gambling in PNG (Rayel et al., 2016). Over the years, as internet became easily accessible, Papua New Guineans began to take up online gambling with some ordinary punters loosing up to K1000 (US$300) in a year on Australian National Rugby League betting application NRL 365 (ABC Pacific, 2023). In Australia, around 80,000 to 160,000 Australians experience problem or addictive gambling which includes a range of negative social outcomes such as criminality, housing instability, relationship problems, financial difficulties such as indebtedness, and domestic violence (Miller et al., 2014). This might be happening in PNG too though there is little research being done on this. In Australia, younger men are most at risk of falling into gambling because they are more exposed to sports betting normalisation processes such advertising during NRL games on TV or on social media platforms during sports updates (Seal et al., 2022).

Young people who are not careful can loose their hard earned cash to online gambling

However, the media can be an avenue to call out addictive gambling especially newspapers which can help vulnerable groups such as young people. Firstly, Miller et al, noted that newspapers should frame stories around gambling by including the voices of problem gamblers. While these problem gamblers might be reluctant to share their stories, at least the story begins the debate around reducing the addictive nature of gambling. Journalists have a responsibility to reduce gambling in our communities by finding problem gamblers or reformed gamblers and doing their stories. Secondly, another way to tackle problem gambling is to combat it with advertising. There is already evidence that advertising leads to increased risk of gambling (McGrane et al., 2023) so newspapers must turn this around by using advertisements to reduce addictive gambling patterns by providing strategies such as setting personal limits on betting (ABC Pacific, 2023). Who will foot the advertising bill? Miller et al (2014), pointed out that there must be collaboration between the media and health organizations to develop ways to financially back advertising against gambling.

Newspapers can be a used by public health organisations to reduce gambling among young people

So personally, I believe that if you have never tried online gambling, do not try it as it can become addictive and lead to social and health problems for you down the line. Even if you already began sports betting, seek to set a limit for bets or never bet more than you can lose. The PNG Government must also see this as a rising problem and find ways to address this before many more social and health problems arise.

 

References

ABC Pacific. (2023). Online sports betting is on the rise in Papua New Guinea, but experts warn of risks associated with gambling. https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/png-gambling/102006846

McGrane, E., Wardle, H., Clowes, M., Blank, L., Pryce, R., Field, M., Sharpe, C., & Goyder, E. (2023). What is the evidence that advertising policies could have an impact on gambling-related harms? A systematic umbrella review of the literature. Public Health, 215, 124–130. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2022.11.019

Miller, H. E., Thomas, S. L., Robinson, P., & Daube, M. (2014). How the causes, consequences and solutions for problem gambling are reported in Australian newspapers: A qualitative content analysis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(6), 529–535. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12251

Rayel, J., Manohar, P., Atu, I., & Raka, R. (2016). Gambling Tourism in PNG- A Grace or a Curse?: Implications of the Proposed Casino Gambling as Perceived by the Community. https://devpolicy.org/Events/2016/PNG-Update/4c_Rayel.pdf

Seal, E., Cardak, B. A., Nicholson, M., Donaldson, A., O’Halloran, P., Randle, E., & Staley, K. (2022). The Gambling Behaviour and Attitudes to Sports Betting of Sports Fans. In Journal of Gambling Studies (Vol. 38, Issue 4). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-021-10101-7

WHO. (2024). Addictive Behaiours: Overview. Addictive Behaviours. https://www.who.int/health-topics/addictive-behaviour#tab=tab_1

 

Amazing Pero Pero

Madang has some really good places to visit if you are looking for a getaway.  

I recently took my children for a tip to a rural guest house on Karkar Island in Madang. You have to travel for about an hour out of Madang town until you reach Megiar village. Then you can get on a boat and travel for another hour on a speed boat to get to Kuburne village. 

On arrival, you will see that the guest house is located in the village setting but the owners have moved a bit to the edge of the village and set up their lovely guest house. The guest house, set in the lovely Kuburne village, has two bungalows which are well made and comfortable. The interior of the two houses are done well - you have polised wooden floors, comfortable chairs, proper solar lighting, running water for bathrooms and toilets.  

The meals prepared by the owners were great and we loved the lemonade made in glasses with straws. We had fruits, eggs, buns, fish, fried chicken during meals and my kids enjoyed it. 

You can watch the full video of our trip on YouTube: Amazing Pero Pero

See you there!