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Light Up Papua New Guinea
A programme which will benefit rural Papua New Guinea will be
launched next week (May 2) in honour of a brave woman who was
killed in Afghanistan while serving her country last year.
Replacing hazardous kerosene lamps with non-polluting,
solar-powered lighting systems in nearly 2,000 aid posts across
PNG is the aim of a new international development project started
by the University of Calgary's Light Up The World Foundation and
the family of Captain Nichola Goddard.
Light Up Papua New Guinea-launched on what would have been the
27th birthday of Goddard-is a tribute to the first female Canadian
soldier to be killed in combat. She died last May 17 in Panjoway
District, near Kandahar, Afghanistan during a military operation
against Taliban forces.
Goddard was born in Papua New Guinea and spent the first three
years of her life living alongside her parents in the communities
of Passam in East Sepik, Losuia in the Trobriand Islands and
Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands.
Her parents, who met in Papua New Guinea, were teachers working
with local community members to build new schools.
Light Up Papua New Guinea aims to bring sturdy, solar-powered
lighting systems to 1,820 first aid posts that are the front line
of health care in isolated villages throughout PNG.
"This project is a fitting legacy for Nichola because she was
passionate about helping people and improving the lives of
others," said her father, Dr. Tim Goddard, the University of
Calgary's Vice-Provost (International).
"Nichola was always proud of the fact that she was born in Papua
New Guinea, and we are proud that she is continuing to make a
difference in this country that was always close to her heart,"
said her mother, Sally Goddard.
Nichola Goddard was born in Madang on May 2, 1980 and lived in
several regions of the country before her family returned to
Canada when she was three years old. She grew up in Canada,
attending school in several provinces, including Saskatchewan and
Nova Scotia. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at
the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. She joined the
Canadian Armed Forces and became a captain in the 1st Regiment of
the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery.
The Goddard family is working with the Light Up the World
Foundation to raise money for Light Up Papua New Guinea. A $200
donation to the program will cover the cost of installing a
solar-powered, solid state lighting system in one first aid post.
The lighting systems use ultra-efficient light emitting diode
(LED) bulbs that last for decades and will provide bright, useful
light to aid workers.
"Providing a safe and reliable source of light will dramatically
improve the most basic level of health care in Papua New Guinea
and eliminate the need to use kerosene lanterns, which present a
fire hazard in first aid posts," said Ambassador Evan Paki, Papua
New Guinea's ambassador to North America based in Washington D.C.
"We deeply appreciate the assistance this will provide to the
people of Papua New Guinea and are honoured by the Goddard
family's continuing interest in our nation. The fact that this
project is conceived in memory of a young woman who gave her life
for her country makes it even more meaningful."
Light Up Papua New Guinea is one of dozens of international
humanitarian aid projects undertaken by the Light Up the World
Foundation since it was born out of the work of Schulich School of
Engineering electrical engineering professor Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday,
who began providing LED lighting kits to villages in Nepal in
1999. With the help of individual donors, corporate and non-profit
partners and host countries, the foundation has lit up more than
14,000 homes in 42 countries and is striving to reach the more
than 2 billion people without adequate sources of lighting
worldwide.
In addition to Light Up Papua New Guinea, the foundation has
projects underway in the Peruvian Amazon, refugee camps for
tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, in villages surrounding the Wechiau
Hippo Sanctuary in Ghana and in communities neighbouring the
Virunga-Bwindi Mountain Gorilla Reserve on the borders of Rwanda,
Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Providing a safe, reliable source of light is one of the most
important things you can do to improve living conditions for
people living in remote and ecologically sensitive areas," said
Light Up the World Foundation CEO Kim Veness. "The largest source
of greenhouse gas emissions in the developing world comes from
dirty, hazardous and expensive fuel-based sources such as kerosene
for lighting."
For more information about the Light Up the World Foundation or to
donate to the Light Up Papua New Guinea project, visit the
foundation's website at www.lutw.org, phone: (403) 210-9552 or
email Roselyn Himann at: r.himann@lutw.org
THE Light Up PNG initiative follows the setting up of the Captain
Nichola K. S. Goddard Memorial Graduate Scholarship, at the
University of Calgary last year.
The scholarship is open to graduate students attending the
University of Calgary who are citizens of Papua New Guinea and
Afghanistan. The scholarship is also extended to Canada's First
Nations, Inuit or Métis people, with whom Captain Goddard spent
many of her formative years. The scholarship will be awarded
annually.
 
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