Something About Babies

There is something soothing about holding little brown babies, clothing optional, in a country far from home. However, when it comes to alleviating poverty and various ‘un-freedoms’ children experience around the globe, it is about as helpful as picking up a stranger’s cute child at the shops. Don’t get me wrong, I think loving others is a fundamental truth we have overlooked long ago and perhaps if we remembered how to do that, unconditionally and truthfully we wouldn’t have the extreme poverty we have today.

There is a myth that those living in poverty are poor because they are helpless, stupid, squandering souls. And a myth is exactly what that it is. I have spent time in several developing countries, most recently Papua New Guinea, and seeing the resilience, entrepreneurship of the people, particularly the women of this nation was incredible and reassuring. Reassuring in the way that there is change happening in countries rife with poverty regardless of what statistics tell you.

My ten-day trip to PNG was a short and sharp stint – and while usually I like to be in a country for anything other than a holiday for minimum 3 months this trip was so worth it.  I have to re-iterate that this trip was designed to work with long-term workers within the community, hence my short-term trip was (hopefully!) not a waste of time, as there are clear plans for long-term commitment to the project.

I was more than nervous to head to Mt Hagen, located in the Western Highlands of PNG. And I nearly didn’t even get there, please note – always good to check you have your OWN passport before you leave home and not in the line at the airport. Cue tears, stress and a 120k drive by your parents to the airport! 

Fast forward a few sweaty hours and I was safely jammed in the back of a truck with a team from Samoa and our local contacts in PNG headed through the Highlands to a small unique community in Madan. We arrived on the edge of the coffee plantation where we were staying, to hundreds and HUNDREDS of villages with flowers and palm fronds yelling, laughing and clapping our welcome! I was moved to tears that hundreds of people would actually be that excited about us just arriving. After a long welcome ceremony in Pidgeon we walked in the dark up to the coffee plantation house, with little hands clutching ours attempting to pull us away from potholes but instead into them!

This is usually were I talk about sleeping on the floor of huts, mozzie nets, sharing a house with over 80 people. But this trip was a little different. Our contacts in Papua New Guinea are an American couple with an incredibly long and complex story about how they ended owning a coffee plantation. Originally built by a wealthy Australian man this house was amazing – timber floors, carpet, running hot water showers with views of the plantation – absolutely stunning.

Larry and Aarlie run a sustainable coffee plantation and have established employment for the Mt. Hagen community --- it is incredible to see their generosity complied with their desire to see the community become empowered and self-sustainable. The saying ‘justice gives a hand up not a hand out’ fits exactly with how this couple do their work in PNG.

The long-term project is to provide 32 schools in this region with clean drinking water and sanitation. This is funded primarily through the International Rotary Club of which Larry is an influential member and has worked tiresomely to get these projects going. Justice Water is essentially a NGO, which evolved out faith-based volunteer organised Youth With A Mission (YWAM) who I have worked with overseas previously.

I have been in communication with Larry since 2011 as he shared his dreams and passions for clean drinking water and sanitation for this forgotten area of PNG. Papua New Guinea has the highest morbidity and mortality rates of all the Pacific Islands. I have to note here that as this information is derived from the World Health Organisation (WHO) does Australia really think its an appropriate 'solution' to send our asylum seekers to Manus Island of PNG?

Back to the project …. Essentially between Larry and myself we were able to co-ordinate teachers from Justice Water NGO and an outreach team from Samoa to begin the pilot project. The pilot project was on two primary schools. On the first school the installation of rain catchment tank, two tippy tap hand washing stations and an above ground toilet. For those interested in the technical stuff, this area of the highlands receives a lot of rain so it’s essentially a swamp. Pit latrines allow the waste to go back into the river, which the villagers drink from. The second school will have their rain tanks repaired, and tippy tap handwashing stations and above ground toilets installed.

Accompanying all this tank business is a curriculum developed by a wonderful friend of mine and co-director of the Justice Water Hispanic team and 'Little Ripples' director, Stephanie Robinson. ‘Little Ripples’ is an easy to read teachers guide to things such as ‘Why we Wash our Hands’ and ‘What are germs?’ – inclusive of active and creative games, perfect for teaching communities in developing nations. My role during this trip was to ensure the rest of the team was familiar with this curriculum, alongside presenting it to the founder of the Western Highlands Province Teachers Organisation and the Community Health Committee. This guide can be used to develop culturally sensitive and appropriate guides for individual communities. The Community Health Committee is a group of Papua New Guinean men and women who are passionate about improving the health of their communities. They have prioritized the water and sanitation school projects and needed to be familiar with every step. I absolutely loved this committee, some highly educated and others not – they were all local people passionate about helping their local community. And who better than to really champion Papuan New Guineans, but local Papuan New Guineans? I love this stuff.

By the time I left the team had begun work on a tank for the first pilot school. This project was being headed up by Johnny, Larry’s right hand man on the plantation, a quick-witted and extremely handy Papua New Guinean fellow, overseen by Larry with Stephen and Alexa from Justice Water and implemented hand in hand by the YWAM team from Samoa, the Community Health Committee and local community members. One of the best parts of the projects is that each school must commit 10% of the project costs. This is to create a culture of empowerment rather than dependency. During my time there we were waiting to see if the first school would be able to find the 10% - equivalent of $100. 

Amazingly they pooled their PNG kinas and essentially began to change the lives of each student of the school and members of surrounding community. The committed to ‘in-kind’ contributions of rocks and gravel to build the tank etc. One of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen was all the school kids coming by choice on their school holidays to help carry the rocks over the bridge to the school one rock by one rock. Such a symbol of this community changing their own lives.

I am so passionate about community development and nothing makes me more happy than seeing local people taking charge, visibly empowered. Its not about making other cultures ‘look like ours’ --- I personally think the idea of communities gathering water from one place, rather than having it piped into our personal and private homes is a beautiful social act that is embedded within many cultures. I am however, passionate about ensuring that the water the people in these communities are gathering is clean and will help keep their beautiful babies healthy and safe. So in the future people will be picking up cute and healthy babies and being astounded by the progress made by the local people of Papua New Guinea. This was my first trip to PNG but I know it will not be my last.

P.S. I am hopeless at culling photos - prepare to be bombarded