SDG ambassadors to attend rugby festival

BY MELTON PAIS
Three elite athletes who were appointed as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) champions, will attend the Bougainville Community Rugby Festival this week to raise awareness on global goals.
PNG netball team (Pepes) captain Lua Rikis, shooter Tania Mairi Mahuru and former PNG cricket captain Christopher Amini, representing the PNG Olympic Committee, will join 10 rugby captains from Bougainville rugby union clubs who will also act as ambassadors at the festival which starts today and ends on Sunday.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bougainville Rugby Union and the Autonomous Bougainville government appointed rugby team captains as ambassadors for SDGs last week.
The formal announcement was made in Port Moresby yesterday in the presence of the captains, Bougainville Rugby Union founder and executive director of Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation Peter Tsiamalili Jr and UNDP assistant resident representative Julie Bukikun
According to Bukikun, all the athletes will join forces to promote the Bougainville Community Rugby Festival, which attracts hundreds of people from the region, as a platform to raise awareness on peace and the SDGs – a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030.