It was a long and dusty ride to 8-Mile, a settlement of about 7,000 people located on the outskirts of Port Moresby. This was my fourth trip to the area, but it was the most memorable and exciting. I was driving there with Senator Claire Moore of the Australian Parliament and Dame Carol Kidu, the only female member of the PNG Parliament, to visit the Orinamaoro Hausbung, which in local slang means ‘gathering place for good, young people”, a youth friendly centre.
The community, with the help of Marie Stopes Papua New Guinea, had set up the centre. The building itself had been donated by a big-hearted resident whilst local young people provided the labour to improve and clean up the place. Community residents had collected money for paint and lumber and two local businesses had donated ceiling boards and gravel for cementing the floor. UNICEF PNG had also provided some small seed funding to go toward the centre’s refurbishment.
Senator Moore was so touched by the residents’ enthusiasm and joy in welcoming her to the Orinamaoro Hausbung, which was the pride of the community as the community had been so involved in establishing it. She learned that the Orinamaoro Hausbung is a place for young people to hang out and learn more about the pressing issues that affect young people in PNG. Issues like HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, teen pregnancy, peer pressure, gender equity, and the effects of violence against women. The community turned up in big numbers and put up a large welcome board for the Senator. They really appreciated that someone from another country cared enough to visit them and encourage them and there was a clamor for her to address the crowd.
In her speech, Senator thanked Marie Stopes PNG for taking the initiative to start such programmes, especially in communities were such services are lacking. She also thanked the community for their part in supporting Orinamaoro Hausbung, thereby ensuring its sustainability. She said, and I quote, “The good partnership between organisations such as Marie Stopes PNG and communities is an effective step in bringing about lasting development, and Australia can learn so much from PNG”. The success of Orinamaoro Hausbung has already resulted in some small extra funding to use music, theatre and drawing to deliver key health messages, Later on Senator Moore and I were shown the proposed open theatre, right beside the centre.
Talking to the young people of 8-Mile, Senator Moore found that the Orinamaoro Hausbung was where sports clubs like the rugby teams and the girls’ volleyball teams meet. She was not surprised to learn that many of the boys and girls were mad fans, like her, of her home state team, the Queensland Maroons. This camaraderie brought her, and all of us with her, walking to the sports field under the glaring sun. She was so touched by the very rudimentary field and the rugged balls being used by some girls and boys that she whispered to me that she would donate some volleyballs and footballs to Orinamaoro Hausbung. Who knows, with the strong rapport that she developed with the young people of 8-Mile, she might just get some autographed and framed posters of the Maroons team to hang in the Orinamaoro Hausbung!
