Sharing the passion for reading

Weekender

By PETER ESILA
THE passion for reading books has made a young tutor to step out of his office at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) to donate books to a village school in Rigo in Central province.
Twenty six year old Nathan John, a part time tutor in Economics of the school of Business and Public Policy says he is all about education and literacy.
“I believe in reading and I will always state that reading is always important to the younger age because it opens the brain power to enhance and understand things,” said John.
“You can discover new ideas just by reading.”
That desire came from his own personal struggle. Coming from a divorced family from Enga, John was raised by his uncles and aunties.
He completing his schooling in Enga and in 2010 applied to UPNG. It was not until two years later that he was accepted as a non-school leaver to do his Bachelor of Economics.
John graduated last year and became a tutor early this year. Since the time of his graduation, he has also been busy setting up a Foundation that aims to improve the literacy rate in the country.
That passion led to the birth of PNG Book Foundation Inc. which was established early this year.
Last month, PNG Book Foundation Inc, with a group from the Bank South Pacific, visited Kemabolo village to visit the Elementary school, Primary school and High School there.
It was all awareness on that day with a donation of sixteen cartons of books from the Foundation and financial literacy talks conducted by staff of the Bank South Pacific.
PNG Book Foundation Inc. is a not-for-profit organisation that hopes to reach PNGs rural and socially marginalised communities to introduce books as a powerful tool for change.
“Our main objective is to empower every young person to fully understand economic, social and political development through the reading of books. This will motivate and enable the younger generation to discover their purpose,” said John, who is the Founder and Coordinator of PNG Book Foundation.
John sources books during his leisure time when he not teaching uni with dintions coming from individuals and organisations.
The sixteen cartons of books donated to the three Kemabolo schools all came from donations collected from Seventh Day Adventist churches around Port Moresby.
“… especially the SDA Churches around Hohola suburb, the Pacific Adventist University and UPNG, and we also got some from the Waigani SDA church and Rainbow SDA Church in Port Moresby.”
“Our vision is to see that every school, every child has to be given the opportunity to read a book, a book that contains vital or necessary information that can help them make decisions in their everyday life as they grow up,” John said.
The organization is starting the donation of books to schools in Central and will move out to other provinces in Southern, and move outwards from there.