I am a Grade
10 graduate and have just left school at Yangoru in PNG where
the Marist Brothers teach. I am learning to type and use a computer
and I am the operations officer for the Yangoru Educational
Resource Centre which was started by funds from Australian Marist
Students. We are very lucky. All the teachers from Village schools
around Yangoru come and use the Resource Centre and I help them
type their lessons and their letters and fill in the test marks
on a spreadsheet. If the Resource Centre was not here they would
do all this by writing and not be able to make copies and have
it look good. There is no electric power in the villages and
the schools cannot afford to have equipment of their own.
If Brother
Donovan had not recruited me for this job, I would be helping
my mother in the food gardens. We grow all our own food and
sell some at the village market. Sometimes we can sell five
kina’s worth of sweet potato and vegetables. There are
no other jobs near my place for girls and only a few for boys.
I could go down to the big town of Wewak and work in the fish
cannery but I would only get K3 for each day and the truck fare
is more than that.
Everyone
knew about the computers for the Centre before they came and
were very excited. We know what computers can do and we need
to work with them if we are going to develop. We just have not
had the opportunity to touch one or use it. Mobile phones have
come to Yangoru now and this is another development. I haven’t
ever used a phone but I hope I will soon
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