Edna’s labour of love

Weekender

By SHARLYNE ERI
IT is eight in the morning at the Morata 4 suburb in Port Moresby but little Elma Aeava is still sound asleep without any concern of being late for school. Her excuse is, school is just downstairs from where she lives.
Elma is the daughter of Edna Wenum, a young woman who had put her welfare, and that of her family on the line for children the same age as Elma to get some form of education.
She had opened up their home to young children so they could have a place to be educated.
Before having Elma, Edna made the decision to become a volunteer care mother of a community based project initiated by NGO group, WeCare Foundation.
A volunteer care mother is in charge of managing, if not, looking after projects provided by WeCare in communities.
The foundation has five support projects provided within marginalised communities and Early Childhood Learning is one of them.
In 2008, WeCare launched the Early Childhood Learning Centre (project) at Morata 4 and the centre was at that time under the care of volunteer care mother, Theresa Meapa.
Unfortunately, Theresa passed away in the same year and the continuity of the centre was in question.
If it was not for the courageous decision of 19 year-old Edna, a grade eight drop-out, little children’s dreams of going to school would have been shattered.
Edna saw the promising benefits the service had, had for marginalised children in her community so she bravely made the decision to take up the role of the new care mother.
When she took over, the family of late Theresa complained about the centre being on their property so Edna moved the place of school to her home.
She built a makeshift classroom under her family home, which was built on high posts, and continued inviting more children.
Edna married in 2010 and with the added support of her husband, Aquila, continued providing basic education for pre-schoolers and young children.
Her ‘grade eight’ educational background did not make her think twice about whether she was qualified to teach the kindergarteners or not. Far from it.
In fact, armed with the little knowledge that she had of the basics, she took the children through narrating the alphabet and numbers as well as reciting some nursery rhymes that she had learnt.
Her perseverance of teaching gained momentum when she and other volunteer teachers went through an Easy Learning Training, sponsored by the Digicel Foundation.
With the support from WeCare and Digicel Foundation, Edna advanced with her service whole heartedly despite negative comments from members in her community who thought she was wasting her time in an unpaid job.
Today, the centre is known as the Reaper Care Group, with five voluntary teachers and an enrolment of 97 students.
It currently has four classrooms from the support of WeCare and Digicel Foundation and students are taught with teaching materials provided by WeCare.
Some students from the centre are now enrolled in mainstream primary schools like Boreboa, in Waigani and have been reported to be performing better than those who began their schooling in the mainstream system.
Edna’s greatest fear now is whether the teachers at Reaper Care Group will remain committed to teaching without any pay.
Most of the teachers have the heart for the children but she is afraid that at the end of the day they might start questioning whether they should at least get something for their efforts. Edna wants to see her fellow teachers paid at least some money to make ends meet.
Edna, on the other hand does not really care whether she is compensated for her work or not.
For her, the change that her work has brought to the lives of children and their families, who would have otherwise been still wandering the settlement, is reward enough for her.
In ending our interview, Edna stressed that she saw no point in waiting for the government to bring about change when she is already as determined as ever to make the change herself.
For the young mother, it is a labour of love.