Aussies donate SolarBuddy lights to 27 local students

The Port Moresby Nature Park played host to 27 students who received SolarBuddy lights donated by students from Somerset College on the Gold Coast, Australia.
The lights were a SolarBuddy project, which is part of their Buddy2Buddy school programme.
SolarBuddy Ltd is an Australian-registered charity whose goal is to provide safe, reliable, effective and innovative solar energy solutions to communities which suffer from the limiting effects of energy poverty.
They achieve this by educating Australian children about energy poverty, renewable energy and global citizenship through their school programmes.
Schools across Australia have already sent SolarBuddy lights to communities in India, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Tibet, Thailand, Myanmar, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
One such school is Somerset College, where Amy Barry, daughter of ExxonMobil PNG managing director Andrew Barry, goes to school.
Barry and her classmates raised funds and purchased a SolarBuddy kit and built the lights to be donated to a school of their choice.
Having been to Port Moresby Nature Park, Barry was aware of its school excursion programmes.
She requested for the park to coordinate schools that would be receiving the lights.
Four schools located near the LNG plant site of Central were approached.
Teachers were tasked to identify six or seven high-achieving students who would receive the lights as a reward.
These lights would enable them to do their homework or study after dark, and will also provide security for them at night.
“Port Moresby Nature Park is happy to coordinate this presentation,” said general manager Michelle McGeorge.
“The work SolarBuddy does ties in with our school education programmes about going green and learning about energy saving — these were topics taught in our recent World Environment Week programme.”
Nature Park’s school excursion programme ‘Come Explore With Us’ is supported by ExxonMobil, which has seen almost 75,000 students participate since 2012.
The programme was designed to strengthen and support teachers in providing practical science-based learning in the park.