First day of Term 2 kicked off today with students from Lae Secondary school having an assembly so the school admin can outline what is expected this term. Lae Secondary School Principal, Mr Christopher Raymond said that the turn out for the first day was excellent with only a few students missing the first day. “This term is important for the grades 10 and 12 as this is the last term of assessments for them.” “ Its the last term for them to collect as many marks as they can to go towards their internal marks.” “For the grades 9 and 11s, Term 1 and 2 assessment are put together to make it assessment period 1.” Mr Raymond added that his school has over 2000 student however funding is alright for the school so far. He said that he can’t speak for the other schools in the province in terms of funding. The first quarter of the Government Tuition Fee Subsidy was received at the beginning of Term 1 and the school has been managing it to run the school while they wait for the second quarter of the GTFS to be paid. He said he is not sure when it will paid out to the schools.

Santos will continue to support the 7th season of the Men of Honour Awards worth K25, 000 as the Highlands regional sponsor. The Men of Honour Campaign is a peace building initiative by Digicel PNG Foundation that focuses on positive behavior with the aim to break the cycle of violence in PNG. So far 95 men across the country have been awarded by Men of Honour Campaign for their outstanding work in their communities to build peace and address drivers of violence in their community. Three ambassadors will be selected from each of the regions with on ‘Unsung Hero’ award going to an ambassador from each region. This year will be the third year that Santos has come on board as sponsor for the Men of Honour Awards. Santos PNG Stakeholder Management Senior Vice President, Mr. Wayne Kasou said that it was an easy decision for Santos to continue its support as a sponsor for this season as a company with shared agenda in addressing gender-based violence. ‘’This initiative by Digicel Foundation is important, in terms of creating a platform that recognizes men making a difference in their communities and being role models for other men, women, and children so that everyone can collectively and collaboratively combat gender-based violence in the country.’’ He added that collaboration and partnerships are key to achieving social change in PNG. Meanwhile, Digicel PNG Foundation CEO Serena Sasingian thanked Santos for its continued support with the Men Of Honour Campaign. “Partnership with the private sector is vital to push social change in the country for the better.” “We remain grateful to Santos for its support and commitment in helping us drive our peace-building initiative forward, recognizing ordinary men doing extraordinary work through this platform.’’ The Men Of Honour Awards will be hosted at the Apec Haus in Port Moresby on 3rd May 2023.

Following Anslom’s Love Me Again and I will love you, hitting the airwaves in Europe and the USA a popular Music promoter in Europe has described PNG’s international Artist as the most underated reggae artist. Over the last couple of months, Anslom was named the Artist of the Year on Galaxy 107 FM radio in New Zealand, he did interviews with radio stations in Europe and the USA and performed at the International Indie Music Festival in Kerala, India. Recently, Anslom was nominated for seven International Singer Songwriters Association (ISSA) awards. The ISSA is a platform that honours excellence in individual singer songwriters and musicians worldwide and is based in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America. A publicist with Big Records in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, submitted Anslom’s music to ISSA. Big Records is Anslom’s record label. Anslom thanked his record label Big Records and management Bassline PNG for the opportunity. “This is the first time I have been nominated for an international award and I am grateful that it is not only one award but seven awards.” “It would be great to bring the awards to PNG so please get behind me and vote.” Anslom has been nominated for the following 7 ISSA awards: • International Male Vocalist of the Year • International Male Rising Star • International Male Album of the Year (Love Me Again) • International Band of the year • International Male Singer of the Year (I will love you ) • International Male Songwriter of the Year • International Male Emerging Artist Anslom Fans can help Anslom to win by voting for him in each of the nominated categories. Voting is open and runs through to April 30 2023. To vote, follow the link www.ISSAsongwriters.com/2023vote or you can follow Anslom on Facebook and follow the link to vote.

An Australia-funded Leadership Foundation workshop which was held recently in Port Moresby brought together 20 emerging leaders from various law and justice agencies and focused on the role of leadership in addressing anti-corruption. It highlighted the importance of anti-corruption practices, critically analysing real-world scenarios, and providing information and strategies for identifying corruption and how to overcome it. There was a panel discussion that followed which focused on anti-corruption, transparency, good governance, traditional laws and culture and the challenges faced by the country in upholding its Constitution. In attendance to this leadership workshop were Mr Richard Kassman OBE, Board Director of Transparency International Papua New Guinea, Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika GCL KBE CSM OBE; Dame Carol Kidu DBE AO; Mr. Thomas Eluh, Interim Chairman -Independent Commission Against Corruption; and Mr. Wilson Onea, Acting Director Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit -Bank of Papua New Guinea. Mr. Kassman challenged the participants to be courageous in standing up for what is right and be accountable to bringing change to Papua New Guinea. “Don’t wait until you are a prosecutor or a secretary.” “As you go up, you will get bigger challenges and must build a strong foundation now to be more resilient against corruption.” Meanwhile, Mr. Paul Lehmann from the Australian High Commission encouraged the participants to grasp opportunities to learn to be better leaders and achieve greater results. “I hope today we can all learn something as our panelists speak about Leadership and Anti-Corruption.” “Discussions such as these help us to understand the importance of transparency, good governance, and good leadership skills for greater outcomes.” “Understanding these concepts and challenges is vital if the Law and Justice sector is to develop the leadership skills and capacities needed to achieve safety, security, and prosperity for Papua New Guineans.” Mr. Lehmann added that the commitment by the Australian Government under the PNG Australia Partnership to support the Law and Justice sector to develop a sustainable pipeline of professional development opportunities for up-and-coming leaders. So far 39 participants have take part in the Leadership Foundations Program since it started in 2022. The program is run by the Leadership Learning and Development Reference Group (LLDRG) to oversee the law and Justice Sector’s leadership capacity development, the National Coordinating Mechanism (NCM) has created the LLDRG to foster leadership skills of executive leaders, emerging leaders, and women in leadership across the law and justice sector.

The Operation Open Heart Fundraising Dinner has been the major fundraising event for the Operation Open Heart Foundation since 2018. After a 3 year hiatus, a small team of Specialist Doctors from Australia flew in on March 23rd and returned on March 27th, 2023. During this short visit, they conducted open heart surgery on 3 adults and two children. This year’s fundraising dinner will be on 15th of April, 2023 at the APEC House where Australian Singing Sensation Daryl Braithwaite will be performing. Operation Open Heart Foundation Director Corporate Affairs Isabelle Corcoran said that they had set K1M as the target for the fundraiser and so far they have raised K720, 000. “We had a good response from business houses and we have sold 20 tables.” “The funds that we raise go towards the work that the OOH Foundation does.” “That includes hiring of the Doctors and the Nurses that work in the OOH program.” “The funds also go to the support staff, purchasing of equipment that the hospital can procure, transportation for Doctors that go out to the provinces to do screen for heart patients.” Corcoran said that the OOH Foundation also steps in to help patients that are unable to pay for their hospital fees. She said that this fundraiser will help assist the great work that the Operation Open Heart team have been doing for the last 30 years. She added that they don’t have any more fundraising events planned for this year for the Operation Open Heart.

Over 300 employees from National Airports Corporations operations and support services completed Safety Management System (SMS) training. The objective of an SMS is to facilitate the creation of safety culture so that compliance to regulatory requirements happens as a matter of cause. NAC Corporate SMS Manuals has safety and regulatory requirements to ensure quality assurance through embedding organizational safety culture within the NAC as a document holder in the PNG Civil Aviation System. This training is among many initiatives that are undertaken by NAC to reinforce safety as the top priority in our operations. Acting Managing Director and CEO, Mr Joseph Tupiri said that this training is mandatory and requires staff that are directly involved in safety as well support services undergo the training. Delivery of the training involves both theory and practical exercises covering a wide range of areas including, civil aviation rules, the SOPs related to the rules, hazard identification, risk assessment, incident reporting and emergency response. He said that NAC is committed to strengthen their safety culture within the organisation and also across the aviation industry where every employee is proactive in contributing towards implementing safety measures on a daily basis in their line of work. He added that they are on track to have their employees including the Managing Director and executives to undergo this training by the end of the year. The Safety Assurance and Regulatory Compliance (SARC) business unit is rolling this training out across the organization. Safety remains NACs top priority across all of its airports and NAC is committed to ensuring we that they live up to the expectation of the regulator, the Government, the Airlines, the travelling public and their employees.

A staff of Ramu Agri Industries is the Lucky winner of Air Niugini’s return trip tickets picked during the major draw raffle at the end of the 46th National Games Fishing Titles in Lae. The promotion for the raffle ran for a week at the Lae Yacht, giving both the participants of the National Game Fishing titles and the public the chance to participate before the winner was announced. Harry Kaisa won himself two Lae/POM/Singapore return trip tickets after he purchased five raffle tickets for K50 each during the week leading up to the commencement of the National Games Fishing titles. Kaisa tried not to be over excited when he first received the text message to advise him about winning the prize because he thought it was a scam. “However, after getting a call from Air Niugini, I was jumping up and down, had to very quickly relay the good-news to my daughters.” “My daughters, Kymorah is in grade 9 and Herrietta is doing grade 5.” “One of the girls will use the second return ticket while I purchase the third one so that the three of us can go together.” “What a great way for the girls to spend their school holidays.” “We are all excited and cannot wait.” Kaisa has never been to Singapore and was grateful for the free airline tickets. He plans to take a trip during the third term school holiday with his daughters.

Alotau Soccer Associating kicked off their preseason over the long Easter Weekend with over 20 clubs taking part. Week 1 games started on Saturday 08th April and ended on Monday 10th April with Joma leading in Pool A, Gelagela leading the Pool B, KB Wanderers leading Pool C and Yele Footy in the top spot in Pool D. Alotau Soccer Association Vice President, Mr. Jeffery Feeger said they had some wash out games and some teams had to forfeit, but they had a good weekend of soccer. “The draws for week 2 of the preseason is already out for the clubs to prepare themselves for this weekend’s games.” “We don’t have a set date yet for when the proper season will begin, but we are hoping mid-May.” He added that they have updated the results for last week and also the current ladder on the Alotau Soccer Facebook Page. They will be putting up updates on their Facebook page as well for people to see.  

Five (5) year old Yaom Sani from Hote Village in Salamaua, Morobe Province has been living with an enlarged growth on her shoulder for three years now. She lost her mother in 2020 and soon after started having the growth on her shoulder. In 2022, the growth grew very large that her father, Sani Matayam took her to the local aid post but it was unfortunate that there wasn’t anyone to help her medically or give her a diagnosis of her medical condition. In search of proper medical care and assistance, Yaom and her father travelled to Lae city, to have specialist doctors and nurses at Angau Memorial Hospital conduct tests to identify the cause of her illness and provide treatment. Sani Matayam said that the doctors had performed Xray’s and Scans on Yaom, however they said she needed a CT Scan to be done on her before they can give her a proper diagnosis and start her on treatment. “We have been referred to Lae International Hospital for a CT Scan however we do not have the funds.” “It normally costs K1,600 for the CT Scan but since we had a referral letter from Angau, they charged us K960. So far all the that the doctors told us is that Yaom has a swollen gland.” Yaom isn’t on any medication at this time. They are unable to go home to the village because it is far from the city and Yaom needs to get the CT Scan done sooner. He and Yaom are now living with friends while they figure out ways to raise funds for little Yaom. Mr Matayam is appealing to anyone who wishes to donate in cash or kind to assist Yaom can reach out to him on his number 72456062.

The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) West New Britain Students Association (WNBSA) held their first fundraiser for the year over the weekend at the National Football Stadium to start raising funds for their end of the year programs. The UPNG WNBSA President, Mr. Michael Jr Reu said that they need to raise over K30, 000 to support their end of year programs in West New Britain. “We plan on conducting an open forum at the end of the year at Bialla and Kimbe towns where we will talk about the law and order issues in the province.” “We will also be carrying out surveys in 3 or 4 hospitals in the province to find out what they don’t have and what we can do assist them in providing a better service to people.” “We will also be conducting Financial Literacy Training for small business owners in the formal and informal sector in Talasea district and Nakanai district as well.” Mr. Reu said that they have more fundraising activities coming up before the end of the year. Their major fundraiser will be a West New Britain Night fundraising dance; however, they haven’t finalized the details yet. He added that apart from those awareness and education programs, they will also have a cleanathon in Bialla and Kimbe town as part of their program. He also thanked the executives and committee of the student association for working hard to make sure the first fundraiser was a success.

The residents of Lae city and the surrounding areas are experiencing total power outage since yesterday due to a fault between Munum Independent Power Producer (IPP) Power Station and Taraka Substation and Power Station. The fault is affecting the supply of electricity into Lae city from the Mumum Power Station and the Ramu Grid. Most of the transmission lines between Munum and Taraka run through the thick bushland so line patrol conducted yesterday afternoon was called off when it got dark and will continue today. At this stage, Taraka Power Station is only able to supply 1.4 Megawatts (MW) which can't cater for the whole of Lae City. Milford Power Station is on forced outage for generator maintenance. For more information and clarification, residents are advised to contact the National Call Centre on Toll-Free 116, Email callcentre@pngpower.com.pg and on WhatsApp 70001009. PNG Power Limited sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused during this time.

Safety is a top priority at Air Niugini and they pride themselves on maintaining the highest safety standards. Because of this, there have been occasions where unscheduled maintenance events have affected their operating schedule, causing disruptions to customers travel plans. Air Niugini want to assure their valued customers that they have a robust maintenance program and their highly skilled staff work day and night to ensure that the aircraft are safe and reliable. Air Niugini acknowledges the support of external stakeholders particularly CASAPNG and the Director and his team as well as AIC and Niusky Pacific Limited and their respective teams. The Fokker fleet have served well; however, it is time to replace them with more modern aircraft and selection process is underway to acquire 11 new next generation jet aircrafts. These aircraft will be larger and more fuel efficient than the present fleet and will expand the schedule and increase frequency. In the meantime they will have more capacity by September with additional Q400 Turboprop and Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This will improve Air Niugini’s schedule integrity, until the new regional jets arrive. Acting Chief Executive Officer Gary Seddon apologized for the disruption to customers travels plans in the lead up to Easter and over the long weekend. “The current situation is not representative of the premium carrier that Air Niugini strives to be.” “We have accelerated plans to bring on additional fleet.” “This provides more schedule reliability, and greater value to our customers.” “We have also engaged plans to increase our staff complement to handle passenger volume growth more effectively.” Seddon added that they understood that air travel can be a significant expense and they are committed to being transparent and providing a range of fare options to meet travel needs and budgets. For those whose travel plans are impacted by the unscheduled maintenance event, they will be accommodated on the next available flight. He encouraged customers to sign up for email newsletters and follow Air Niugini on social media to stay up to date on latest promotions and offers.