DIGICEL FOUNDATION CONTINUES ROLL OUT OF NEW CONCEPT DOUBLE CLASSROOMS

April 17th 2010 - Moga Primary School receives new concept classroom

Saturday, April 17th, 2010 – Mt Hagen: the Digicel PNG Foundation launched its third new concept double classroom on Saturday at Moga Primary School in Dei Council District in the Western Highlands.

The Digicel PNG Foundation contributed K175,000 towards the new concept, steel structure, double classroom at Moga Primary School. The new facility includes office space, 40 new double school benches, school black boards and a water tank.

The Moga Primary School started as an elementary school in 2003 with 50 students. Within seven years it has grown into a primary school with more than 250 children enrolled. The school is mainly supported by the community members from the surrounding five LLG’s and serves a population of 25,000 people. All four exisiting classrooms are built from bush materials funded by the community members themselves.

With the opening of the new steel frame double classroom the Moga community will have access to a higher quality learning environment for their children for the first time. During the launch ceremony, the School Board Chairman,Mr. Titus Elpa, said: “This is a very special gift for us and a wonderful start to our new school year. The community has been contributing alot towards the development of this school for their children and have now been rewarded for their continous efforts. Our children now have a solid roof above their heads to keep them dry, promoting a productive learning environment and a higher quality of education. This is a building that we are proud of and that will be used by many generations to come.” 

Marena Sansan, Board member of the Digicel Foundation and Digicel Regional Highlands Manager said: “We are very proud to be launching this new concept steel frame double classroom today. The infrastructure of schools around the country needs urgent attention. This is a new solution that provides for a solid building which can be built quickly and has minimal ongoing maintenance costs. We hope that this new double classroom will provide the students with a better learning environment and will help them grow into strong and self supportive young adults. We would like to thank you for the warm support we have received from the community and we wish the teachers, students and their families a productive school year”.

This is the seventh school building project the Digicel Foundation has launched to date. The new concept steel frame double classroom took less than one month to construct which is considerably less than previous double classroom building projects which took an average of three months to complete. Valuable construction time was saved through the use of a  pre fabricated kit structure, steel frame solution, provided by Atlas Steel. Besides being able to construct the double classroom in record time the steel frame construction provides for a very solid solution with little maintenance needed thereby minimalising the financial burden for the school and the community. The Digicel Foundation has completed another three steel frame double classrooms, across the country, which will be launched during the month of April. This brings the total to ten school projects funded by the Digicel Foundation since its inception only 18 months ago.

In addition the Digicel Foundation funded a two-day hygiene training programme through partner NGO, ATProjects, for school teachers, students and community members. During the training the more than 400 participants learnt how to construct their own toilets and bucket shower for the female students and learnt how to use them in a hygenic way.  

The Digicel Foundation is working closely with Government, non-government organizations, churches and the private sector to get the Digicel Foundation’s many projects off the ground with the emphasis on the critical areas of Basic Education infrastructure and Family Support related infrastructural projects. To date the Digicel Foundation has funded 40 Community Learning Centres, ten primary school and 18 elementary school infrastructure projects, two Mobile Health Clinics and three Meri Seif Haus projects. The first Family Support Centre was launched last month and a further three Family Support Centres, in partnership with Government run hospitals and co-funded by UNICEF, are under construction. By improving infrastructure in the areas of basic education and family support the Digicel Foundation strives to empower communities which in turn will endow them with a positive outlook for their future.