Village recovering after damage

A village in the Umi-Atzera LLG area of Morobe is slowly becoming self-reliant after it was burnt down by a neighbouring tribe a decade ago.
The Intsi villagers have formed an association to develop hamlets and rebuild lives.
The villagers established the Markham Hewagi Corporative Society to drive community development aspirations.
Personal viability training facilitator Alex Watson said the whole village was burnt down in 2007 by a nearby tribe following disputes over intermarriages.
“When in ashes, the community decided to build the village to match the setting of a town or suburb,” Watson said.
The society conducted personal viability training for villagers which has enabled them to plan and execute developments in agriculture, transport, health, education and small-to-medium enterprises in three-year programmes. Watson conducted personal viability awareness in the village in 2012 to drive the people’s mentality towards self-reliance.
The society then outlined development plans for the community in phases which are reviewed after three years.
Watson said after establishing the society, they started buying coffee and constructed a road themselves to transport coffee to markets.