Foundation invested K300,000 in literacy since 2017

TELIKOM Foundation Inc has invested a total of K300,000 since 2017 in improving literacy across the country through technology enabled solutions, coordinator Yolanda Bafmatuk says.
Speaking during the foundation’s gala dinner in Port Moresby on Saturday, Bafmatuk said they had directly impacted 80,000 people across the country since inception in 2010.
She said they had targeted schools where they had built information technology (IT) laboratories; Badihagwa Secondary in Port Moresby was one of those schools. She said they had also supported other non-governmental organistaions (NGO) who were providing literacy and numeracy skills training such as Anglicare and Hope Worldwide.
“We are having this event because we want to do more schools and we’d like some of you seated here to come on board and be that partner for us to do this together,” she said.
“The ‘Clean IT’ programme that we have is made up of two aspects: one of which is the ICT (information communication technology) infrastructure, desktops, personal computers (PC), all of which are quite costly.
“And then we have the access to internet, the world’s largest library.”
Bafmatuk said they were giving children in the country access to the internet, same as children in the US.
However, she said the challenges in the rural communities were not only in literacy improvement but also infrastructure such as deteriorated classrooms and damaged water tanks.
“These are some of the realities of going out there and supporting the communities, especially the schools.”