Hela students carrying out awareness

By PETER WARI
AN awareness campaign covering tribal fights, the 2022 National Election, education, services and violence against women is underway in Hela.
The awareness, organised by Hela tertiary students, the graduate students union and Pureni youths from the Evangelical church of Papua New Guinea, started last Sunday and will end on Nov 26.
Team leader David Hapokaia told The National that as upcoming leaders, they had to talk to their people on issues affecting the province and they would visit several communities in the three districts.
“The theme is ‘Stand up, speak up and be an agent of change’ and we are focused on changing mindsets and raising young leaders to be agents of change,” he said.
“Many times we used to sit down, complain among ourselves instead of looking for solutions to the violence that engulfs this province.
“The majority of our people are illiterate and not everyone has access to social media and we have taken the initiative, since last year, to carry out the awareness.”
Hapokaia said young people under the age of 30 made up more than 50 per cent of Hela’s population and Hela’s future depended on these young people.
He said Hela could be improved but there were underlying issues affecting the people in the province.
“These issues are common everywhere in the country and for the youths to reach their full potential, they need inspiration and motivation through their same age group in the educational perspective and in the Word of God,” he said.
Hapokaia said the awareness team had agreed to use their own resources to educate the people.