Programme sees 300 Goilala locals repatriated

Goilala in Central was part of a Covid-19 voluntary repatriation programme initiated by its provincial government along the Hiritano Highway last week.
Central Governor Robert Agarobe said the programme was for the people of the province stranded in the city to return to their respective villages.
“A lot of people have come into the city and are having a really hard time because of the lockdown,” Agarobe said.
“This programme is a voluntary arrangement for the whole of Central province and the people have a choice to either stay or go back to their village” he said.
Goilala was the first to respond positively towards the programme.
On Thursday, about 300 Goilala people were transported to their villages.
Agarobe told the people that they would be sent home with food rations that would last them for seven days and tools to help sustain them when they went back to their village.
“With this programme, I have decided to give the people garden tools to start them off somewhere and as a province, we plan to start off each of our district with one-crop-per-district concept.”
Agarobe added that about half a million kina would be spent on this programme and “we expect over 5,000 Central people to go back to their villages through this initiative”.
Awareness was carried out for about four weeks by programme organisers and Central provincial coordinator Raymond Keni, with support from the four district representatives.
“We have been running this programme for about five weeks and we have been doing awareness informing the people,” Keni said.