Elizabeth improving lives of fellow villagers

By HANNAH NERO
AFTER graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Extension in April last year, 26-year-old Elizabeth Gasie decided to return to her village in Goroka to set up projects to benefit the people.
“If I don’t show up, people will start to lose interest. So somehow I have to be present and take ownership so they can follow.”
She is the third eldest in a family of three boys and two girls born to Philip and Dulcie Gasie from Meniharo village in Seigu, a short distance from Goroka town in Eastern Highlands.
After her graduation, Elizabeth mobilised the villagers and impressed on them the need to work together as a community to develop the village and improve their living standard.
They registered their Meniharo Community Development Association with members meeting each Tuesday and Thursday at the ringing of a bell, to discuss what they need to do in terms of keeping the village clean, addressing law and order issues, how to conduct themselves in public and communal tasks they need to carry out.
The idea came to her while at university. During study-associated trips to rural parts of Eastern Highlands, she saw how remote villagers went about their daily lives. One thing that struck her was how their standard of living seemed much better than her own village, despite it being closer to town.
“Working in rural areas of the province made me realise that I needed to start something for my own village.”

“ If I don’t show up, people will start to lose interest. So somehow I have to be present and take ownership so they can follow.”

For example, she noticed how the people of Henagaru in Okapa formed an association which built guest houses made of bush materials but with in-built kitchens and proper out-post latrines for visitors – at a reasonable cost.
“If people in more remote areas who do not have good roads can build good homes, proper public toilets for visitors, and access to electricity, why not my people?”
Because her fellow villagers had been facing water supply issues, she led them in digging up two “watering holes” – one for drinking and one for laundry and washing.
Elizabeth also attended a good-governance training conducted by the Oxfam WASH programme in Goroka on how to manage a clean and safe drinking water supply.
“Good governance principles helped me a lot in terms of initiating change in the community.”
She is organising with the Coffee Industry Corporation to facilitate a coffee nursery project to distribute coffee seedlings to villages.
The villagers are now responsible for village clean-ups and beautification, maintaining road-side drains, and planting flowers in the village.
Seeing herself as their leader, she stressed to them the importance of discipline, orderliness and obedience if their plans are to be successful.
Elizabeth is happy to see the villagers eagerly coming together to ensure there is a clean water supply, proper toilets, rubbish pits and flower gardens.
More people are turning up while young people are engaged in small projects to keep their minds away from drugs, alcohol and criminal activities.
At the end of the day, she knows that the key to their success rests with her. She explained that if she wanted to see change in the community, “I will have to humble myself and work with them to achieve development”.
Elizabeth can easily relate herself to what the late American Baptist minister, activist and political philosopher Martin Luther King Jr once said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others? Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.”