Staeamships gives books to school

By VERONICA FRANCIS
Students of St Therese Primary School in Badili are all smiles after receiving three cartons of books from Steamships Property yesterday.
In addition, Steamships Property repainted the school crossing and gave high visibility vests to teachers to use when helping students cross the road during peak hours.
Steamships Property general manager Andrew Potter challenged corporate and business houses to help local schools and communities develop in small ways.
“It’s not about the money, it’s about giving back to the community and we are proud to support the school,” he said.
Potter said the donation was the first of its kind for Steamships Property to a school but would become an ongoing activity.
PNG Gardener Justin Tkatchenko said it was import to build private-public partnerships.
He said Steamships Property had taken on a very good initiative in ensuring the safety of the school children.
“We must chip in to do our part by looking after it,” Tkatchenko said.
“We must try our best to look after and maintain public property and help in beautifying our capital city,” he said.
St Therese chairman Camillus Boagege commended Steamships for recognising the need of the school and coming to its aid.
The school has applied for the rehabilitation of education sector improvement funds but has not received anything from the government so far.
It is understood a two-storey building housing eight classrooms worth K720,000 is under construction but the school needs money to complete it.
Boagege said they had sought sponsorship from business houses but only the PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd had responded with K49,000.
The school has contributed K300,000 towards the construction of the building.
“St Therese has produced some of the country’s leaders such as the late Sir William Skate and it will be a sad story if we let the school deteriorate,” he said.
The school has 1,430 students enrolled and 36 staff members.