Markets get libraries

 TWO Buk Bilong Pikinini libraries will be opened in Gerehu and Gordon markets, courtesy of Bank South Pacific (BSP), Buk Bilong Pikinini (BBPL) and UN Women in partnership with the National Capital District Commission.
These will be the sixth and seventh BBPL projects BSP will fund around the country for the next four years.
A memorandum of understanding was signed yesterday between deputy city manager Honk Kiap, BBPL founder Ann-Sophie Herman, BBPL executive officer Luke Ebbs and BSP chief executive officer Robin Fleming.
“This partnership is a long term commitment by BSP to ensure that our children harness the necessary skill of reading as part of their development as the future leaders of PNG,” Fleming said in a statement.
“Our children are our future and we must give them hope, health and opportunities.”
Safe Cities programme team leader Alethia Jimenez said there were many children who did not go to school at markets and these were the best places to provide this service.
“Most kids around markets don’t go to school and hang around the rubbish and it’s not so good so we want to make markets child-friendly,” she said.
Jimenez said the BBPL already had such a setup at Koki market, where women drop their children off for the day and go on to sell their produce in the market.
She said progress on construction of the improved Gerehu market was almost complete.
The one at Gordon will have to undergo another round of planning and a full revamp.
“The market is under flood levels so when it rains the whole market floor is under water so it needs to be raised,” she said.
Jimenez said they had been in talks with NCD Commission engineers recently and should begin soon where all buildings would be removed and rebuilt.
“We will have to do the construction in phases so we can move people to finished areas while working on others,” she said.
Both urban markets have been undergoing changes through the UN Women and NCDC Safe Cities programme since 2011.