Kokoda villagers build own road by hand

By LUKE KAMA
THE Kokoda Track Catchment communities along the Kokoda Track in Central are building and fixing roads by after waiting in vain for government help.
The people living at Manono along the Edevu-Mdlogo road decided to fix the road because it was getting harder to go anywhere.
Tracy Havala, a mother of seven from remote Kagi village, said she had to walk carrying her eight-month-old baby for almost two days to reach the Manono campsite.
She joined people from the 14 villages building and fixing a the road.
“I had to walk for almost two days to come here and sleep at the campsites to build the roads because I am a mother of seven children and I feel for my children,” she said.
“Without access to roads or air transport, public servants like teachers and health workers are not willing to come and work in our schools. I feel for the future of my seven children.”
Programme coordinator Lendi Noel, from Efogi, said they had been waiting for assistance for a long time.
Noel said the Edevu-Mdlogo road was the shortest route to access services in Port Moresby.
“We ask the PNG Government, Australia Government and those who manage the Kokoda Initiative and the Kokoda Track to start doing some real work on the ground to help us.”