Students organise drive to help displaced fight victims

A GROUP of tertiary school students in Port Moresby are conducting a fundraising drive to raise money for food and clothing among other things for the affected families of East Sepik’s Mengar and Basis.
Chairman of the East Sepik Tertiary Students’ Association and University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) student, Standford Walehau, said they started receiving donations last Wednesday.
“We set donation stalls at UPNG and the Vision City Mega Mall for an appeal to the public for donations of cash and kind,” he said.
“Over the past days, we have collected K400 in cash and some clothing from donations within UPNG.”
Walehau said the initiative was purposely to provide relief and comfort to their families who had lost their relatives and homes.
“We understand the trauma that our people of Mengar and Basis are going through and so with this aid we hope the government sees the importance of safety of our people during this election season,” he said.
The settlements of Mengar and Basis went up in flames last month following an election-related fight among villagers that saw four people dead and left many traumatised.
Walehau said the East Sepik students from the UPNG, Institute of Business Studies University and the Port Moresby Technical College started the relief programme as it was home to some of them.
“The students in these schools whose families are victims, both in Mengar and Basis, we hope to show them that we support peace,” he said.
“We have yet to negotiate with the East Sepik government to help us transport these donations home.”
Walehau said they put out flyers on social media and look to continue the donations for the remainder of June.
“We are thankful for the donations we have received so far and we invite the East Sepik community in Port Moresby to contribute any amount of cash or kind,” he said.