Tuke and Digicel PNG Foundation partner for Education

Member for Kainantu,  Honourable Johnson Tuke, presents the cheque of K100,000 to Digicel PNG Foundation Board Members, Kien Choong and Calextus Simeon

Monday 7th December 2015, Port Moresby : Member for Kainantu, Honourable Johnson Tuke, presented a K100,000 cheque to Digicel PNG Foundation last Friday for counter-part funding for Pomasi Primary School’s double classroom project in Kainantu District of Eastern Highlands Province.

“Digicel PNG Foundation works in some of the remotest areas of our country to bring essential services to our people in rural Papua New Guinea. I am pleased to be at the forefront of this Public Private Partnership with the Foundation as we work together to provide quality classrooms for students at Pomasi Primary School. This is the third time I am partnering with Digicel PNG Foundation having previously co-funded Yababi Elementary School and Krufi Elementary School in 2013,” Member Tuke said.

Chief Executive Officer of Digicel PNG Foundation, Beatrice Mahuru, expressed gratitude towards the Member and his district administration for their confidence in the Foundation.

“We sincerely thank the Member for his counterpart funding and assure him that Digicel PNG Foundation will fully utilise these funds to deliver and complete the Pomasi Elementary School in readiness for the 2016 academic year. We are pleased to progress the public-private partnership agenda of the government and are therefore grateful for the Member’s support. Partnerships are core to ensuring development goals are achieved together,” Mahuru said.

Digicel PNG Foundation has made a total investment of K 3 million for 22 health and education projects in Eastern Highlands Province with K840,000 of this in Kainantu District alone.

To date Digicel PNG Foundation has funded 450 classrooms, 21 Mobile Health Clinics, 2 rural Health Aid Posts, 3 Women’s Resource Centres, co-funded 5 Family Support Centres in partnership with UNICEF and NDoH, graduated 221 grassroots community based teachers in early childhood development and learning and over 13,000 men and women are now equipped with basic business skills. Eighty people with special needs, their families and communities have been impacted by the Foundation’s pilot Community Based Rehabilitation Program; and the Men of Honour Awards – a campaign against violence in PNG, is the latest to the Foundation’s development portfolio. 

Established in October 2008, Digicel PNG Foundation has directly invested K45 million in PNG’s rural, remote and marginalized communities across all 22 provinces directly impacting over 400,000 people.