Project aims to empower villagers

A VILLAGE in the Mendi-Munihu district of Southern Highlands has launched a smart village programme to improve living standards through self-reliance.
The concept was practised in the past and Kuma villagers in the Upper Mendi local level government are trying to revive it.
Mcyano Wapiyu, a former public servant and community leader who initiated the programme, said people were depending too much on others.
The project involves people working together on land to grow crops, vegetables and fruit.
“I saw that people were doing nothing and had no plans for the future so I came up with the concept to get them busy by farming the land,” Wapiyu said.
“This idea is to get a group of people helping one person farm the land for five hours a day. The next day another person is helped for five hours and so on.
“This is simple and ideas are shared and people will try their best to live a productive life.”
Wapiyu said if one person was farming the land, he would be bored and not finish the work, but when group of people work together it would be fun, faster and more work on the farm would be done in a short time.
“Our target is 2018 for cultivation, 2019 for planting and 2020 for harvesting. This will result in cash flow and people don’t have to resort to illegal activities,” he said.
He said they were targeting youth who were not doing anything
Wapiyu said people would be able to buy roofing iron and live in better houses.
He promised to buy a portable sawmill for the community so that they could cut timber to build houses.
“We have the improved Mendi-Tambul road that runs through our village and soon electricity will come in. We need to change. Change will come when we combine to help one another in farming the land,” Wapiyu said.
Acting provincial administrator Thomas Eluh thanked Wapiyu, saying the concept was very useful.
He said people need to work hard for a decent living than rely on handouts.
Eluh said many youths were leaving their villages for towns and cities and looking for money without realising that money was in the village.
“Agriculture will be my priority and some small portion of money put aside for education, health, road and bridge infrastructure will be diverted to agriculture,” he said.
“I want people who are doing nothing to return to their land.”
He encouraged educated elites and community leaders to teach youths to be self-reliant.
“As leaders they must teach youths to be self-reliant like what Wapiyu did to his youths in the village.”