Esso Highlands to assist remote schools

PNG LNG project operator, Esso Highlands Limited (EHL), has rallied its transport resources to help the Education Department and AusAID deliver school textbooks to isolated villages in the project areas.
The deliveries are part of a programme supplying 539,000 AusAID funded textbooks to PNG’s 3,400 primary schools.
“Given the nature of PNG’s terrain, getting these textbooks to isolated schools is a huge challenge,” head of AusAID in PNG Stephanie Copus-Campbell said.
“This is an important programme to support education in PNG that we are implementing with the Education Department and provincial governments.
“We are very thankful that EHL has come forward to help with the distribution of the books in their areas of operation,” she said.
AusAID-trained district women facilitators will accompany the deliveries to ensure the correct books are given to the schools.
“EHL is very pleased to be part of this very important programme,” EHL managing director Peter Graham said.
“Education is obviously an important aspect of PNG’s ongoing development and we are pleased to be able to link up with AusAID to ensure that PNG’s school children get the vital education resources,” he said.
EHL will be providing helicopter and boat transport to help deliver the textbooks to remote schools, some of which are several days walk from the nearest road.
The distribution of textbooks had started with deliveries of books to schools near the LNG plant in Kairuku-Hiri district, Central province, earlier this week.