Unitech students begin nationwide election awareness

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 29th December 2011

By YVONNE HAIP
UNIVERSITY of Technology students launched a major awareness campaign in the Highlands region to educate people on how to elect good leaders.
The students are driving a nationwide election awareness campaign using their own money.
Spearheaded by the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship, in partnership with the school’s Students Representative Council, the campaign aims at informing all eligible voters on the importance of their vote and the need to vote for the “right leader”.
After its launching at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby on Oct 28, the students travelled to Komo, Hides, Koroba, Margarima and Nipa in Hela, and on to Kandep and Wabag in Enga.
They later went to Ialibu and Pangia, in Southern Highlands and during the Christmas weekend, they were in Mt Hagen.
This week, they will be visiting Minj, Kudjip, Banz and Kindeng in Jiwaka.
The students decided to do this after realising that as educated Christians, they could not just sit, pray and expect miracles, or wait for the Lord to appoint better leaders, they had to do something.
They are now involved in the drive to make people realise that the power to change the face of the nation lay in their votes.
They told people how to choose quality leaders and make good choices when the country goes to the polls next year.
They said it was time for changes because the country was rich in resources, yet after 40 years, the people were poor and still lived as their ancestors did.
First-year students Benjamin Bulda and Elijah Mek said apart from the experience of travelling and conducting awareness, they had the opportunity to see how “poor” some districts were.
Mek said services did not reach the people in rural areas and they wondered what had happened to the funds being released for development.
Bulda said the people’s response to the awareness was positive as most realised they were being deprived of services and the country needed better leaders.