Oro formats policy for sports

 By JACK AMI

IN a bid to move forward in sports, Oro province has drawn up a provincial sports policy.

Oro Governor Gary Juffa instructed the provincial sports chairman Herbert Isemba to engage local sports personnel and officers from the National Sports Institute to help draft the policy.

It will be the blueprint for sports development in the province. 

Once adopted, Oro will be the sixth province in Papua New Guinea to have one such a policy.

This has been made possible with a funding of K60,000 from Governor Juffa and counterpart funding of K60,000 and technical assistance from the PNG Sports Foundation (PNGSF) and National Sports Institute (NSI) in Goroka.

Goroka-based officers with the National Sports Institute were flown to assist the Oro Provincial Government and the provincial sports office put together the policy led by NSI director and chairman of the PNG Games Edris Kumbruwah, Janet Gimot,  Samu Sasama and  Jeffrey Gideon.

The formulation of the Oro Provincial Sports Policy commenced in 2013 and concluded with writer’s workshop from May 13-16.

Governor Juffa acknowledged the support of the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PNG Sports Foundation Peter Tsiamalili Jr, Mr Kumbruwah and  Mr Isemba and their teams for their contribution to the drafting.

The provincial advisory team was made up of representatives from its nine LLGs.

The push to have the Oro Provincial Sports Policy formulated was done so after Team Oro’s dismal performance at the 2012 PNG Games at Kokopo.

Subsequently a review committee was established to identify ways to address the issue.

The provincial sports policy was the remedy agreed on.

Isemba appealed to all LLG presidents to take ownership of LLG sports associations to help achieve the objectives of the new sports policy for the province.