DORMITORIES FOR GIRLS

Weekend Chronicle 14 August 2011 P4.

PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) has ensured that girls have the same opportunity as boys in obtaining an education. For that reason, they have funded dormitories in the Western Province.

PNGSDP chief executive David Sode said that the organization supported St Gabriel’s Secondary Techniical School in Kiunga to complete the building of the first female dormitory in the school.

He said that young women came from different parts of the province and were often accommodated around Kiunga in circumstances that did not make study and personal safety conducive for young girls.

We think of their families and the impact that educated mothers have on families.

COMMENT:  AIDS Holistics has been writing on this issue for about 12 months now that Universal Basic Education (UBE) is in place across the nation.

The problem at St Gabriel’s Kiunga is repeated in every primary school in the rural nation now that students go as far as Grade 8.

Young girls of 13-17 have to board in houses of the surrounding villages. They are subject to sexual harassment by village men.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church advises that the number of pregnant village school girls has risen with the advent of UBE.

Every village primary school needs dormitories particularly for girls but also for boys who would otherwise have to seek village accommodation.

This is an example of the innovation racing ahead of the supporting infrastructure.

I would be very unhappy to send my teenage daughters to a rural village school for 3 years and have them return pregnant at the age of 17 years. Their education has been wasted.

Why are the PNG and foreign women’s organizations not screaming about this injustice towards village girls?

Every primary school requires dormitories. Perhaps the Chinese Government could help.