WIND OF CHANGE GRIPS PNG CAPITAL TO OPEN IT AS CENTRE OF VOLUNTEERS

TECHNICAL INSTITUTE PUTS ITS HANDS UP TO JOIN VOLUNTEERS IN THE CITY CLEAN-UP

PORT MORESBY: A technical Institute in Port Moresby’s Hohola suburb is putting its hands up to join volunteers in the city clean-up.

This is part of its effort to reciprocate assistance to the City Hall which gives scholarships to its students under NCD Governor Powes Parkop’s TVET and school-fee assistance scheme.

Students from the college posing for a photo

Executive director Thomas Phillar of Asia Pacific Institute of Applied Social, Economic and Technical Studies, said they wanted to be part of the changes taking place in the city.

He was speaking to students and other participants at the end of usual Walk and Yoga for Life this morning (August 26, 2018).

Mr Phillar said he was amazed to see the cleanliness of the city, giving positive feelings to residents.

In his speech, on the students’ behalf, he has requested Governor Parkop to assign dump trucks and allocate locations where they can start it.

He also called on him to direct the commission’s waste management unit to supply them with hand globes and other safety gear.

He described the governor as simple people’s leader who always takes time off his busy schedule to have fun, walk, chat and interact with the residents.

This trait is rare amongst elected leaders in the country, he added.

Executive Director Thomas Phillar 

“He is an amazing man who has amazing ideas and visions. He is really serious in transforming our city. Not long, he is going to transform the whole country,” he told them.

He said fellow residents have been voluntarily cleaning the city because they adored Mr Parkop’s leadership.

Direct Phillar further urged him to seek partnership with Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce so the graduates of his college can secure jobs.

When everyone earns an income, the crime rate declines, he said.

Governor Parkop assured the college that most of his programs are designed to up-skill residents including youths and provide them with employment opportunities, citing the Active City Development program, jointly-funded Urban Youth Employment Program and others.

He also responded favourably on their request on the clean-up, calling on other recipients of his scholarship and other programs to follow the example set by this school.

The volunteers are members of the Walk and Yoga for Life tribe under the NCD Active City Development program.