A stirring Gokata youth initiative
EARLY this month, a group of young men and women got together at Variarata Scout Camp outside Port Moresby for a three-day youth fellowship.
There was nothing unusual about the camp except that it wasn’t often that these offspring of three villages in the bushlands of Rigo but residents in Port Moresby, get together and share something of common interest.
In the big city, most residents live in their own personal world, conscious of their own needs and wants and rarely do they cast a glance in their neighbour’s direction, even if that neighbour is a wantok or a relative far removed.
Life has developed to a stage where the law of the jungle is very much at work in our society – the law of the survival of the fittest.
Our traditional values and the inherent tenets of cohesion in the face of adversity is eroding and many who cannot cope with the life of today, are succumbing to the circumstances, which are sadly, not of their making. When that happens, the rot sets in and the impact is felt, not only in and among the personal world that they live most of their lives, but also by the wider community that they are part of. It’s a ripple affect that washes over all and sundry within close proximity.
Hence, the gathering by the youths took on a significant meaning because it was the result of their own initiative, mainly to steer their future in the right direction through Christian principles and traditional tenets that reflected those principles.
It was, as one participant aptly put it, “the beginning of plotting a course for the future, a good future for us and future generations”.
Elder, Kurona Leslie Bala commended the initiative taken by the youths of the Gokata United church Port Moresby town congregation to organise the camp and was filled with admiration for the young men and women with origins in Gobukamana, Karaikomana and Taitakomana villagers in the hinterlands of Rigo in the Central province.
Gokata is the name deprived from the first letters of each village.
“The pouring rain could not in any way dampen the spirits of the young people who attended. The singing and praise and worship were so intense and ecstatic that it almost seemed like a dance festival,” recalled Deacon Bala.
“It may not have been noticed by many, but it was quite a significant achievement for Gokata congregation considering that the sourcing of sponsorship, fundraising and administration of the camp was done completely by the youths with almost no assistance from fathers, mothers and church leaders,” Deacon Bala said.
Over the three-day camp, Deacon Bala observed that the youths were capable of achieving more but lacked the resources to scale new heights in their quest to be upright citizens and leaders of this country.
“I felt quite proud to be associated with so many young people who at a very early age were already showing strong leadership qualities,” he said.
But there were nagging questions in his mind at the end of the camp – would they be capable of nurturing the qualities they have? Would they not succumb to circumstances or temptations along the way? Would they continue to be given low priority or ignored by the powers that be?
These and a lot of other questions prompted Deacon Bala to come away with, in his words, ‘a haunting question’: “What are today’s leaders doing about empowering, training and nurturing our young people for tomorrow?” he asked.
“I was left with this haunting question about today’s leaders. These are young people who would need the helping hand of their leaders to aim them in the right direction. If we want the right future, we have to have the right leadership.”
Deacon Bala said being a positive role model is one thing, but how many successful Papua New Guineans today actually make a consistent effort to be with young people and train them for the leadership challenges of tomorrow?
“It is my belief that too many young people view their role models on a pedestal. Leaders should not be just looked up to, to be admired from a distance and imitated.
“The leadership and role models of today have to make time in their busy schedule to come down to the youths’ level and be actively involved in their nurturing.”
Bala said attending the youth camp made him review his priorities and refocus his attention.
“I vowed in front of the youths to spend more time with the young people of this day,” he said.
“The youths were happy to receive my moral support and commitment to support them and work more closely with them than ever before. However, I was also humbled and ashamed to learn that this was what they had wanted for a long time, but were too polite to ask.
“As an educated person in an executive position, my young people have always wanted to spend more time with me and learn some finer points, but I have been too busy rapt in my career to notice.
“I hope that this report, when it comes out, will stir other leaders to get off their pedestals and roll up their sleeves. There are other forgotten youths out there that we the leaders of today have neglected for far too long.
“The youth of today are the future of tomorrow and without youths there is no future.”
The Wise Counsellor aptly puts it when he reminds us “to train up a child the way he or she should go and go there you once in a while”.
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