No one is a failure

A MAN from the Highlands has failed his grade 10 examination in 1991.
He felt rejected when everyone in the village talked about his academic failure.
He packed his belongings and moved to Mt Hagen where he stayed with relatives at Wara Kum settlement.
Life was hard and nobody paid attention to assist him in pursuing his education. He was so depressed.
One day, he walked towards the Mt Hagen main market looking for friends from his village who were engaged in carrying bags at the market. He joined them and helped market vendors to transport food crops from the trucks to the market place.
He enjoyed doing that dirty job to survive in the town. He earned almost K100 daily.
He would spend K20 and save K80. He did that for a year and saved about K29,200 (K80 times 365 days).
The next year, he went to the Mt Hagen University Centre and registered to upgrade his marks.
He continued working at the market in the morning and in the afternoon he attended classes.
He completed his grade 10, 11 and 12 within three years.
After that, he went to Kumine Community Health Worker’s Training Centre in Mendi and enquired with the principal.
He shared his life story and struggles before submitting his application. He was accepted to do his training the following year.
He completed the training after two years and was posted to Mendi General Hospital.
He worked with Mendi General Hospital for two years and applied to Mendi Nursing College.
He finished Mendi Nursing College after three years and worked with Mendi General Hospital for the next three years. After three years he applied to Divine Word University in Madang to do Health Extension Officer (HEO) training.
He completed his HEO training after three years and worked with Modilon Hospital in Madang till he got his residency certificate.
With the residency certificate, he applied to the University of Papua New Guinea’s Medical Faculty to become a doctor – specialised Urologist.
While he was working at Port Moresby General Hospital, there was a vacancy advertised by the World Health Organisation for a Pacific Region Medical Directors post.
He applied for the position.
The recruitment team found that he had completed all the steps in health programme during screening and was awarded the contract.
Moral of the story – we are not failures as long as you survive on this planet earth.

Gibson Lambea Mai,
Ialibu-Pangia Electorate,