Lady Namaliu Hosts YWAM

Lady Namaliu hosted a YWAM team outside of Rabaul, East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) this month. While YWAM’s primary reach is health, training, and community development in the Gulf and Western Provinces, they also aim to have broad involvement across the nation.
The team partnered with PNG’s former first lady to connect with the youth of the region and gain better understanding of the Kokopo district.
The team spent time in the Pheobe Parkinson’s Learning Centre which was established to focus on early childhood development. The Learning Centre especially focuses on the disadvantaged and under resourced families of the area.
The main purpose was to assist with engaging the youth of the region, filling in the generational gaps in education and learning. This region had suffered from many school dropouts with little direction after leaving school. The effort now is to continue the young people’s development, helping them get excited about learning, and giving them confidence to move forward and impact PNG positively. When building a foundation of learning at the earliest stages, the children are more likely to succeed in the future.
Team leader, Selena Hotere, said that the team performed musical items at schools, graduations, and churches, and sharing a lot about hope. Her vision for PNG is to see their incredible gifts and talents being used to positively influence the world, especially the Pacific Islands. Hotere and her team strongly believe that the diversity of PNG is a gift which can empower many.
“I love being involved with the programs in PNG,” Hotere said. “Education opens doors for these children not only in PNG but the world. It also brings hope to them and their families.”
Hotere also mentioned YWAM is keen to send more teams to the region in the future.
“It was wonderful to work with Lady Namaliu.” Hotere said. “The Rt Hon Sir Rabbie Namaliu became the patron of YWAM Medical Ships Australia (YWAM MSA) earlier this year and we were so grateful for that. It is a privilege to work with the Namalius.”
YWAM MSA has worked in the Gulf and Western Provinces since 2010; 106,384 training, health and community development outputs have been delivered, with support from the following key stakeholders PNG Department of Health, Steamships, Curtain Bros, InterOil, the Gulf Provincial Government, Sustainable Development Fund, and the Ok Tedi Fly River Development Fund.