Community group relaunched

By ALPHONSE BARIASI
IT IS all too easy and convenient to blame ‘the government’ or someone else when things don’t look good.
“Things” can be anything from a million-kina bridge being swept away to a stolen solar panel worth a few hundred kina.
Often it has got to be someone else putting up the money and sweat to replace or rebuild even what is seen as the most pressing need.
Such dependence and denial of personal responsibility is pervasive throughout the country.
Whatever has happened to the sense of pride and self-sufficiency that had existed in our societies not so long ago? Who has robbed us of it?
It is with such awareness that a community development association is being revived in Port Moresby.
The Mikarew (pronounced Mikarev) Community Development Association has held four meetings since a family gathering on Boxing Day last year and there is already a sense of excitement among the two generations of Aruamu language-speaking people of Bogia in Madang residing in the capital.
The association is registered with the Investment Promotion Authority and at the last meeting at Nick Frani’s residence at Tokarara, a resolution was passed to immediately start a fund-raising drive for for community projects back home.

A vibrant agenda
The association, being fully cognizant of the development woes of Mikarew people and their neighbours, has set itself an agenda that would hopefully draw interest from government and non-government stakeholders within PNG and abroad as well.
It aims to assist in a small way in the promotion and improvement of health, education, road infrastructure and other tangible socio-economic development in Mikarew.
Driven by the Aruamu motto of Nu Wabh Adamu (Do it Yourself) the association is determined to take the challenge to bring positive change for the Mikarew communities and neighbours linked by a common road to the Bogia coast in Madang.
Financial membership is expected to grow within the next couple of months when word reaches others living outside of Port Moresby.
Obviously the immediate and most pressing need of the Mikarew area at large is the upgrading of the feeder road linking the Bogia district headquarters on the coast.

Existing feasibility study
The association already has an existing feasibility study for major upgrading of the 25km road which was completed a few years ago by a team comprising people like civil engineer Joseph Tuaki, surveyor Joe Avou, Dr James Gissua, Tony Duba, William Frani, Paul Akuram, all sons of Mikarew themselves.
The association intends to update that study and get endorsement from the provincial government for the upgrading soon.
The existing study is for the link from Bogia coast to the Igos Health Centre in Mikarew but work could eventually reach Giri, providing an alternative link for villages in the Giri-Base Camp area and those further up the Ramu River.
Apart from the road, the association also envisages sourcing funding and other needed resources to boost the operations of existing health facilities and schools.
But all aspirations rest on an all-weather road so the first thing is to get the road open so it can be used even in the wet season as currently experienced in the area and throughout the country.

Join for a cause
The association is appealing to all Aruamu speaking people as well as others from the Yawar LLG area residing in Port Moresby and other parts of the country to join and become part of this move to do something for their people.
It is a small start but a start for something good to come later; only believe that it can be done, says chairman Barry Duba.
“We know we have tried this in the past and did not go beyond the planning and documentation of the feeder road.
“However, that will not discourage us; rather it will motivate us to push the matter harder so that the road is upgraded.
“It can happen and it only requires us to think and work as one,” he adds.