Church launches projects

By ROSELYN ELLISON
THE Raluana United Church in the Raluana local level government (LLG) in Kokopo, East New Britain (ENB), recently launched several projects.
The projects launched on Saturday, include the Raluana UC redevelopment foundation, fundraising plan, Raluana ward five development plan and Raluana singing ministry album.
Raluana building board committee member Andrew Ilam said the church building, which is currently valued at K320,000, had been built in the colonial period – construction started in 1959 and was completed in 1967 – before independence and they wanted to redevelop it for the people of Raluana ward.
Ilam said Raluana needed a permanent church building to worship as a focal point for church activities in the Raluana circuit and New Britain division.
“The current church was built during the colonial times when this land was still under Australian rule,” Ilam said.
“Working towards the projects, people of Raluana ward raised the funds themselves to build the current church building.”
He said the people funded the redevelopment of the church building through the sale of cash crops such as copra and cocoa as well as the sale of other agricultural produce such as mangoes, handcrafts and fishing.
He said people of Raluana also made personal contributions.
Under the Raluana ward five-year development plan, spiritual development was one of the seven sectors addressed in the ward development plan.
Ilam said the total cost of implementing the ward’s five-year development plan was K1,762,100.
He said for the plan to be successfully implemented, partnerships between the church, people and businesses needed to be fostered.
The four projects were launched by former Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu and witnessed by Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat, former Rabaul MP Sir John Kaputin, former deputy prime minister Sir Leo Dion and other dignitaries from the ENB government and administration.
Sir Rabbie, who is from Raluana, and is the patron of the Raluana UC redevelopment foundation, thanked everyone for their contributions towards the fundraising drive.
He also thanked MP Marat for his contribution of K10,000.