Youths unite island community with sports

Normal, Sports
Source:

The National, Thursday November 26th, 2015

 By MELANIE TOLIKEN

YOUTHS on Anir Island in the Feni Group, off the south-eastern coast of New Ireland, have been playing an active role in uniting their communities through sports.

The local games which boast eight teams in rugby league and touch are played at the Feni Catholic mission oval every Sunday following mass and have attracted villagers from all over the island to join in the fun.

Women’s leader Cecilia Temarama said in the past, the youths only held games during the Independence anniversary celebrations and other big events but now their main focus was to bring communities together to socialise, have fun and provide entertainment for the villagers every weekend.

Temarama said youths on Feni Island had a lot of potential and were interested to compete in the New Ireland provincial games with the aim of representing their province at the Papua New Guinea Games but lack of proper transport services to travel to the mainland had been a continuous problem.

She said many people had gone missing while travelling on banana boats and that caused fear among youths, who wished to part take in major sporting events in Namatanai and Kavieng town.

Tamarama urged leaders to help boost sporting activities on Anir and to develop local talents.