Did you know that Papua New Guinea is our closest neighbour?  Many people there still live in very poor conditions without running water, electricity, a good standard of education or health care.

Many schools just operate out of a shed without lights, walls or proper flooring and there are a lot of children who go to school in just thongs or without shoes at all.  

Earlier this year we asked people to donate books no longer being used, to schools in PNG.  Children’s understanding grows out of books, and school curriculums are richer and the learning more meaningful.  Also, here in Australia there is a lot of waste when people don’t know what to do with their old books. 

We collected and packed around 140 cartons of books from different schools, businesses and friends.  These were then shipped to Papua New Guinea.

During the school break our family went back to New Guinea, and while we were there I organised for the books to be sorted into different school levels, and we distributed these to 10 schools.  We brought our 3 children to one of these schools to help distribute these books.  When they did this, they could see the different standards of schooling everywhere, and have an appreciation for their own school here in Australia.

On behalf of the schools that have received these books, I would like to thank Newington College and everyone that contributed their pre-loved books.  Everyone was amazed and grateful that the teaching material and textbooks are so current and relevant.  The students were all looking forward to reading their new storybooks. 

While there are many problems we can’t fix for these schools, it was good to have helped in a small way towards some schools by providing reading books and text books.  We also helped to reduce waste in the environment by saving these old books from being thrown out.  Everyone had to do only a small part to help, but it had such a positive impact.

Schools that we contributed to:

– Rabaul Play School
– Kokopo Primary
– Ranguna Elementary
– St Marys Vuvu Secondary
– Takubar Elementary
– Viviran Primary
– Tauran Primary
– Malabunga Secondary
– Destiny Elementary
– Chanel Teachers College

Joanne Seeto – Newington College Lindfield Parent