Mum worry eviction will affect her children’s education

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
MOTHER-of-six Piwen Opa, one of those facing eviction from Erima in Port Moresby, is worried about her children’s education.
“My youngest son is going to his first year of studies at Polytech and the fees are very high,” she said.
The unemployed mother is worried that the eviction would add to her burden.
She settled in Erima after leaving Manus in 1994 with her late husband from Iokea, Gulf.
She told The National that if her family was evicted from their home on Portion 3541, they would find it hard to secure a new place to live in the city.
Opa said she wept with others as they watched homes being demolished last week – two weeks from the start of the school year.
As a longtime resident and parent, she felt for the many school children who would be affected by the eviction exercise.
Opa and other settlers are comforted by what Prime Minister James Marape said in Parliament on Tuesday that there would be no more evictions in Port Moresby until proper resettlement plans had been drawn up.
They urged the National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop to reconsider the eviction exercise.