June 13th 2009 - projects/community-learning-centre-for-baroeda-community

Saturday 13^th of June 2009 – Kainantu: today the Baroida Community in Eastern Highlands Province witnessed the launch of the 26^th CLC by the Digicel Foundation.

Through one of it’s partners, Joeri Kalwij, Manager of Monpi Coffee Sustainable Services,  the Digicel Foundation heard that most of the younger children living with their families on the Colbran Plantation in Kainantu were not attending elementary school. The reason that they were not attending school was that the closest elementary school was too far for the little children to walk to. The Digicel Foundation visited the plantation and recognized the need for a Community Learning Centre (CLC) to be used by the community as an elementary classroom.  Chris Colbran of the Colbran Plantation Kainantu will partner with the Foundation in providing this essential service to the community by providing basic school materials as well as a fortnightly salary for the teacher.  

The Baroida community was overwhelmed with the new CLC.. With the new CLC in place the children will have access to a dry environment for reading and studying purposes.

The Digicel Foundation’s main focus is to initiate projects that will provide opportunities and inspire a positive and vibrant future for the communities within PNG. The Digicel Foundation believes that as the Digicel network and coverage grows within the country the communities in PNG should grow as well. The launching of the 26^th CLC in Baroida Community Kainantu is the realization of Digicel Foundation to make a difference and play a positive role in people’s lives in PNG.

For the Digicel Foundation this is the only beginning as it plans on rolling out a total of 40 CLCs’s in PNG by the end of May 2010.