Youths clean graffiti around city to earn money for school

By MARTHA DERUAGE
SEVENTEEN-year-old Waki Mua is pleased to be among 15 schoolboys who were employed by Dan’s Hire Car and Real Estate, to clean graffiti in the city and earn money before going back to school.
Dan’s Hire Car and Real Estate was awarded the project by NCDC to remove graffiti around the 22 Chinese aid bus stops, power poles, road rails and sign boards in Port Moresby.
Mua, from Southern highlands, will be doing his grade 11 at Port Moresby National High School.
He lives at the Morota settlement with his three siblings and parents.
“I am really happy to be given the opportunity to work and earn some money before going back to school. This would help give relief to my parents with money for school fees and stationery.
“I heard about this part-time work through my uncles, so I decided to join in and work.
“We were given three months to work, clean graffiti on the Chinese-donated bus stops, power posts, road rails and sign boards around the city.
“We are paid K500 fortnightly so that’s really good. I look forward to work in the next few weeks before going back to school,” Mua said.
The 15 boys are being supervised by anti-graffiti project coordinator Matthias Max.
Max said work had started three weeks ago as the boys removed graffiti from bus stops, power poles, sign boards and rail roads.
“We have decided to employ schoolboys living around the city. Some of the boys are in primary schools, some in secondary schools and we hope to help them earn money for school fees and stationery.
“These are some of the areas we plan to train young man about the real world. We do have permanent staff but for now we just want to help the schoolboys.
“We know some of the boys are underage but this is not child abuse, we know living in the city is hard so we want to help the boys earn a living the honest and hard way.
“It’s also to teach them that vandalism and destroying property with graffiti is wrong and that they should stay away from it.”