Young mum starts school

By KAIJAH AROGA
NANA Natalie Tom was born on May 27, 1983, and is from a mixed parentage of Madang and Chimbu.
She is the proud mother of two beautiful children and is currently employed as a records officer with Nasfund Savings and Loans Society Ltd (NCSL) under their legal division.
Nothing is out of the ordinary in her life; she is simply a mother with two kids to raise, except for one slight peculiarity: She runs a school under her house.
The idea for a school that would cater for illiterate and marginalised children living in and around Port Moresby came to her in 2017. She had then been unemployed for nearly two years and witnessing the tragic sight of children roaming around aimlessly made her ask the hard questions: What would happen to them in the future? What would those children’s lives look like 10 to 15 years down the line?
An illiterate child wondering around with no guidance is a lethal combination and she decided to intervene the only way she could.
On April 1, 2017, without any teacher education or having completed a degree of any sort, Nana registered New Beginning Literacy College with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA). It is a school that would serve the purpose of teaching underprivileged children and starting them on the path of education. The formal announcement of the school took place on April 28 that with invited guests attending the event. May 1, 2017, was the first day of enrolling children living in and around 9-Mile area and Nana holds this day to be a memorable one because it signified a change for every unfortunate child’s future.
The school’s motto is: Change your character and you change our world.
On June 27, 2019, due to the increase in the number of children enrolling, the school changed its name to New Literacy College; a name that indicates growth. New Literacy College is currently under Nana’s house, located at her home in 9-Mile Port Moresby, opposite the 9-Mile Farm on Mango Main Street, Section 1155. Classes range from prep to Grade 1 and there are between 25 and 35 children in all.
The children pay a registration fee of K50 to enable them to attend classes, however not many pay but Nana’s idea and drive is to ensure that none of them are left out.
New Literacy College has library books supplied by the education department. The school has also its own materials sourced from other outlets.
There are three dedicated teachers that are paid by Nana’s business partner and major sponsor of the school, Consortium of Leadership Excellence (Cole) Group of Companies.
The chief executive officer of Cole, Shivalinga Prasad – an individual Nana compliments as being an angel in human form, and who, as fate would have it, was Nana’s former trainer at the Institute of Business Studies in Port Moresby.
Prasad earns an honourable mention for continuing to play a supportive role in the resilient existence of New Literacy College since 2018.
However, the school still lacks many things at present, one being a proper classroom. But they continue to do what they can until the long term plan of improving and expanding New Literacy College is realised.
Two f the many goals she aims to accomplish are ensuring elevations in grade levels and securing land to build and expand the school to better accommodate and educate the children. The fact however, remains that without the support of government, other donor agencies and charity organisations none of these goals will be realised.
Even so, Nana and the teachers continue to make use of what they have at present in order for the children to remain intact in a formal education setting.
Indeed, Nana Natalie Tom’s personal story is one of persistence and struggle to achieve her dreams. She completed year 10 at Gerehu Secondary School but forfeited her scholarship due to pregnancy. Nevertheless this did not hold her back. She began working as a shop assistant. In November of 2007 she was offered a job with Bank South Pacific (BSP) as a security personnel.
While working day shifts, she took night classes at the International Training Institute and earned a certificate in computing. By June of 2009, she was elevated to work as a switch board operator inside the BSP head office.
Later on BSP paid for her diploma course which she undertook and graduated in 2010, she notes this to be a turning point in her career. Nana then left BSP after almost eight years there and joined the People’s Micro Bank, where she worked for seven months before leaving to start her own school – New Literacy College.
At present, she is working as a records officer with NCSL whilst overseeing the running of the school; this is mainly because of the need to support the school through an avenue of formal employment since New Literacy College main objective is to serve marginalised kids, many of whom are not able to afford education in other schools.
The fact that a grade 10 drop out went on to start a school to serve children out of a humanitarian passion to help others proves that there is no way of telling how the future may pan out. Regardless of her own difficulties and struggles she is willing to help others and that must inspire others to look deeper within themselves for the courage to aid others who are in need, with the faith that things will get better.
“I know it may take years to achieve all this. Yes I have faced financial constraints. I had to leave my teachers and get back to formal employment just so that I get the school running and this something that nobody would believe me doing but there is a great God out there who keeps us through and through.
“I have seen children leaving New Literacy College and entering primary level in mainstream schools and doing very well out there. This is something I will forever be grateful for because it has indeed changed people’s perspectives.
“My main focus is to put a smile on someone’s face that could never be wiped away.”

•  Kaija Aroga is a freelance writer.