A worthy national leap of faith

 THE inaugural Digicel Men of Honour Awards presentation on Saturday night was a huge success.

Full credit to the management and staff of the Digicel PNG Foundation for their planning and tireless efforts in making this great initiative become a reality.

As a sponsor of the Community Education “Teacher” category, The National is proud to have been associated with this innovative campaign to end violence in Papua New Guinea.

Digicel Foundation aptly described the Teacher as, “  … the wise one, the respected one, the one who takes you under his wing and quietly steers his community and peers to greatness”.

We commend our three finalists – Wamala Ila Rova, Richard Yuasi and Leo Simon – who epitomise the Teacher’s role. You have all done your respective schools and communities proud and we are confident you will continue to serve them with distinction. Ila Rova was the eventual winner and had a slight edge over Yuasi and Simon. Nonetheless, the three tea­chers are amazing educators in their own right and full marks go to them.

The National firmly believes that education is the foundation of our modern society. We believe that a nation that has a sizeable population of well-educated, hardworking and law-abiding citizens stands a better chance of achieving its development goals than one that is full of uneducated, unlawful and lazy people. All Papua New Guineans have a duty to their country to be well-educated and to develop their talents and skills in gainful public and self-employment.

The National has for the past 20 years provided positive coverage and a forum on education issues and will continue to do so.

We publish the weekly Education and Youth and Careers pages that promote education-related issues. As well, we have the bi-weekly Young Life magazine for very young school children, which is the longest-running supplement in The National.   

Many citizens dream of a country that is free of violence, crime, corruption and other bad elements of modern-day Papua New Guinea but that is an ideal environment that will be difficult to achieve. We can all do our bit to help reduce violence, crime and corruption.

Indeed, the Men of Honour Awards is one such initiative and its campaign against violence is a most commendable effort by the Digicel PNG Foundation.

As chief executive officer Beatrice Mahuru said in her message, “Digicel PNG Foundation aims to break the cycle of violence through focusing on positive behaviour for affirmative action. 

“Papua New Guinean men have been vilified for decades but there are honourable men who are alleviating suffering and preserving human dignity in the roles they play.

“Digicel PNG Foundation took the road less travelled through its ground breaking, national Men of Honour campaign, a first of its kind in Papua New Guinea.

“It’s a pendulum shift aimed to promote: Fathers who work tirelessly to give their children a better future; husbands who respect their wives as real partners in life; sons who now take care of their parents; brothers who step into the role of loving guardians; and grandfathers who assume the role of teacher and minder. The Men of Honour Awards are not based on achievements but rather on character.

“In our inaugural year, we received 390 nominations and the independent panel of judges had the arduous task of selecting the finalists and the winners.

“Each of their stories is compelling and we thank all these amazing men for making a difference in their communities and encourage them to keep their fire alive.”

As a co-sponsor, The Na­tional is proud to take this “leap of faith” with Digicel PNG Foundation in promoting this campaign against violence. 

We commend the sponsors of the other awards categories – Community Entrepreneur, Community Ingenuity, Community Leadership and Sporting Mentor – and envisage they will continue to support this initiative.

The judges deserve high praise for their efforts. We take our hats off to the Men of Honour who were nominated for this inaugural event and given due recognition. There are many others like them in all parts of the country who are just ordinary men who do extraordinary things.