Dignity, Health, and Reusables: Period Care That Lasts

 A few days ago I met Ms. Anne-Shirley Korave, the Founder and Owner of QueenPads and asked her about the work she was doing around the country.

Ms. Korave was on the DWU campus to talk about menstrual health among the female population. She did multiple sessions for students and staff as well. I attended one of her sessions at the Sir Peter Barter Auditorium where she talked to some female students.

Ms. Korave talking to the students at the SPBA

QueenPads is a social and green enterprise that produces and distributes Reusable Sanitary products for women and girls throughout Papua New Guinea. It has been in operation for the past seven (7) years. Their work aligns to social and health development that aims to improve lives of people in our communities. The World Health Organization (2024) points out that over half of the world's population experiences menstruation at some point in their lives. It is important to remember that menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is a matter concerning the health, well-being and dignity of girls and women. Menstrual health is deemed by WHO to be a public health and human rights issue.

Some of the participants that attended the session

QueenPads is one of the many community groups, non-government organisations and development agencies that work in the areas of menstrual health in Papua New Guinea.

After the session at the SPBA, I was able to conduct a small interview with her (only two questions) and from that interview, I decided to develop a short video about her outreach program that she was doing around the country.

Here is the link to the video on YouTube:

You can find more about them on their website: https://queenpads.net/ 

You can also follow their Facebook page or reach out to them through WhatsApp: 76046955 or 72472225

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Appreciating Teamwork

Every semester when we roll out these online exams for students, the process itself demonstrates TEAMWORK in every sense of the word. 

The academics, the Centre for Learning &Teaching staff, ICT Department staff, Administrative staff and Ancillary staff who keep our classrooms clean, ensure electricity is constant for lighting and air conditioning. Honestly, bikman tasol antap em luksave lo hatwok blo yupla wanwan na value yu bringim kam lo organisation. 

I just appreciate you all this morning!!!!!

Gusap Health Centre

 The Gusap Health Centre is located in Gusap, a rural area in Ramu Valley, within the Usino-Bundi District of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. I wouldn’t really say ‘rural’ because it lies right the middle of Ramu Highway which connects Madang to Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces respectively.

The Ramu health centre is at the Ramu Agri-Industries Limited (RAIL) areas as well. So it serves communities in and around the Ramu Valley, including those associated with agricultural and plantation activities such as those linked to the Ramu Agri-Industries (RAI) operations in the area. RAI is a run by New Britain Palm Oil Limited. (NBPOL is the subsidiary company of SD Guthrie, an company that employs 83,000 people worldwide).

The Gusap Health Centre is a public health facility is under the Madang Provincial Health Authority although most times it feels like its in the Morobe Provincial Health Authority area. I once travelled from Lae, Morobe Province, with a team of health workers to the RAIL premises to conduct awareness of Family Planning and Sexual Reproductive Health to the company employees and families. Anyway, I travelled from Madang and passed this place and visited. It was on a Sunday afternoon and the place was quite empty. I was told that during the weekdays place would be on full operation.

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What's the best thing about the DWU Open Day?

 Every year Divine Word University did have an Open Day. However some years ago, they decided to to have it every other year. 

This year I went around to visit the Open Day and asked the participants ' What is the best thing about the DWU Open Day' and got some great responses. Here is the video of the day:

I had a great time filming and editing the video. Again I learnt a few things about shooting (sound capture is still important ) and editing (you can use pre-prepared Canva animations) and will improve in my next video. 

Watch the video and let me know what you think in the comments sections below. Cheers!   

Maku Gifts talks to the CA4s

This semester, one of the units that I am teaching is called Social Media & Digital Communications. It's a unit in the final year of the Communication Arts (Journalism) Program. Although many of the students in the program are already familiar with social media and digital media, this unit builds on their understanding and introduces them to key concepts and terminologies such as the 'creator economy' and the shifts in the media industry in the last decade, especially in the mass media sector.

The creator economy is a fancy term for the online content creator business. The creator economy is made up many things but there are five key elements: a) Creators b) Communities c) Platforms d) Tools and e) Monetisation Models. Many Papua New Guineans are already participating in the creator economy by using elements a, b, c, d while some are actually implementing monetisation models particularly YouTube. One such Papua New Guinean organisation is Maku Gifts  which has been distributing Lavagirl fabric & garments, jewellery, home decorations, corporate wear and more over a decade. They have 6 shops around the country and recently have open a new 'pop up' setup at the domestic terminal of Port Moresby's Jackson Airport. Maku Gifts, as an entity, has not yet monetised their online community yet but have used Facebook, as a platform, to market their business extensively using audiovisual methods.

Maku Gifts Owner Ms Annette Sete talking about her business

Well, it's not everyday that I get to have a 'pawa meri' come talk to my year 4 students about using social and digital media in the workplace and business. The owner of Maku Gifts, Ms Annette Sete shared to the students her experiences of leveraging social media as a platform to market her business but also understanding the risks and pitfalls surrounding social and digital media issues such as privacy, branding, ethics, cyber-trolling, understanding your customer base, profiling, etc.

The Communication Arts Year 4 students listen to Annette

One of the key aspects of her talk surrounding social media use, particularly Facebook, is the issue of cyber-trolling and online scams.  Molenda et. al. (2022) defined trolling as “a repetitive, disruptive online deviant behavior by an individual toward other individuals or groups mostly focused on evoking unpleasant feelings (e.g., frustration or anger) in other discussion participants through inflammatory, destructive, and even aggressive posts or comments created by trolls just for their own fun and entertainment." The Maku Gifts owner stated that internet trolls, those that create fake accounts and then troll her posts, are common. As she utilises Facebook to advertise and market her business and events, these online trolls invade her comments section. She has had to develop strategies to resolve these issues. Another aspect of the dark side of social media use has been the rise of online scams where, she pointed out, people use her profile pictures, images or even edited her presentation videos to create social media posts or content that solicit money for her unsuspecting customers and friends.    

The CA4 students pose for a group photo with the Maku Gifts owner

I'm very grateful for Ms. Annette Sete for taking time out from her busy schedule (she has a shop in the DWU Mart too) to come talk to my students. Not a lot of business people or senior government or private sector people have time to come talk to students. So I'm just grateful for her time and commitment to come talk to the students. I hope that my students learn more about the social media world from her experience plus also put into perspective their studies in DWU and how they can utilise their skills and knowledge gained over 4 years to solve real world problems such as the ones faced by Maku Gifts. Her business is one of so many Papua New Guinean businesses using social media as well as digital media to market, build, extend and influence their business and business practices. 

East to West Goroka in 4 minutes

 I have always known Goroka to be a busy place with people moving to and fro everywhere but it seems these days, the numbers of people in Goroka are increasing. 

As we began to enter the heart of Goroka town - the market, the crowd of people on both sides of the road was packed tight. This was around 2 pm on a Monday afternoon so it was obvious that people from all walks of life were on the road. We came past the roadabout and people were crossing the road willy-nilly and this hindered the traffic on both sides of the road. But we passed them and then headed straight to West Goroka.

There is a road crossing just when you leave the peace park/airport and cross to the other side. I remember that this road crossing location has not like forever! I used to cross this road as a child when we used to walk from town back to our home at West. Here is a video of when we passed that place:

https://www.facebook.com/100069955120101/videos/1156826799435533/?notif_id=1739688760680271&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

Will you visit Madang in 2025?

I have seen people do short videos of Madang and so I decided to try my hand at doing the same. 

Using a small drone, I went to several places in Madang and did some aerial shots. Here is the result:

I have always had this in the back of my mind - Its all about keeping your skills fresh and up to date with technology changes. As the communication curriculum changes to match the changing digital technology, we too, as teachers need to update our skills. Flying a drone and understanding its unique role in content creation are key concepts we can introduce to our students. I'm just learning this now but I hope to improve as a practice more!