Youth commends Yama

TWENTY–THREE year old Malken Wasuak could not contain his joy as he hopped on the Air Niugini flight from Madang to Port Moresby last Sunday.
He is one of the 100 young people on their way to the Philippines for six-month training at the Hinch Technology School of Business in Batangas, Manila.
“I am lost on what words to use to thank Governor Yama or express my gratitude towards him,” Wasuak said.
They are the second group sent to study in the Philippines as part of the Madang government’s “second chance” programme.
Madang deputy provincial administrator Paul Amera said they were school dropouts from the six districts of Madang.
Wasuak who comes from a big family with many step-brothers and step-sisters started his education in 2005 at the Eastern Primary School in Yangoru.
In 2013, he completed Grade 12 at the Yangoru Secondary School but scored low grades and could not continue to the next stage of his education.
His parents separated when he was very young and both remarried.
He lived with his mother’s family in Siniengu village in Yangoru.
“Sometimes I break down emotionally when I thought why they were not close by to support me but forced myself to complete grade 12,” he said.
Wasuak joined youths in Yangoru in criminal activities.
When he heard that his father, a public servant attached to the Works department in Madang had gone home to Tirin village in Turubu, Wewak, Wasuak went to look for him. He caught up with his father who then left him with his relatives and returned to Madang.
Wasuak later followed him back to Madang.
His father had a difficult time telling his new wife that Wasuak was in town. But Rose Mulul Atbo welcomed him home.
Wasuak tried his best to maintain a good relationship with his father and stepmother.
He attended to his stepmother’s customary duties at her Urugen village on Karkar Island while she was busy working at the provincial government. She helped him apply for Governor Peter Yama’s “second chance” Philippines scholarship.
Yama said such boys and girls “were rejected by the education system” and ended up in criminal activities.
The first 100 students who went last year to undertake trade courses at the Jimmy Hinch Technology School in Batangas, Philippines had completed their studies.
Some of them were recruited by companies as carpenters, steel fabricators, plumbers, welders and electricians.
Wasuak and 99 others are in this year’s group.
“I want to give them the chance their parents and the education system failed to give them,” Yama said.
“They are the one causing law and order problems in our society so when we put them on the right track and right course in life, they will not create problems for us.”
Yama said sending 100 youths to study in the Philippines cost Madang government about K5 million (K30,000 each).