![]() Her Village Is So Remote That It Can Only Be Accessed by Air The remoteness of her village did little to stop this girl who had a big dream to graduate in University. Yanamlyn Yana's story starts in Kaintiba, an extremely remote place bordering Gulf and Morobe Provinces. She grew up in a very conservative Christian home and attended school in the village. Yanalyn shares her extremely challenging experiences growing up in rural village. "Being a village girl, education for a girl was uncommon. My parents believed in me excelling. The challenge was proving to my people that girls can excel too" Lack of government support made the people lose hope about the formal education system and held a very negative opinion about girls going to school as Yanamlyn recounts. “Most girls who go to school don’t make it pass 8th grade because parents don’t believe in investing in girls with the view that girls go to school not to learn but to look for boys or men and eventually get pregnant” Hopes for further education get crushed. Dreams for brighter future are killed. Bright students with promising future never fully live to realize their dreams. That is the reality, Yanamlyn had to face, fight hard and win. Given the remoteness of the village, it’s very hard to generate consistent flow of income to support the students and this, Yanamlyn says is one of the biggest obstacle for even the brightest of the students to pursue high education in towns and cities. “Some clever and smart parents look after domesticated animals so that they can be able to supply meat to raise funds for their kids school fees. “At least that’s how my parents raised our school fees because the demand for meat is very high when it comes towards Christmas time. Many bright children, both boys and girls, leave school because their parents can't afford to pay their school fees let alone provide for their school stationeries and clothes” Yanamlyn was selected to Sogeri National High School in 2012. Being selected to Sogeri did come with its own struggles as Yanamlyn says. “For the past six years I've been to Sogeri National High School and UPNG, I reached home by foot via Lae by Air Niugini and to Aseki by open back land cruisers, an additional one and a half day or two full days walk if one is fast enough or 2-3 days walk all the way home “My application to UPNG to take up Bachelor of Arts Social Work was successful which made my passion to work in and with communities are reality when I graduated in 2018. “To be the second female to go to university straight from the village was a huge step up and an inspiration many of my younger ones look to and are thriving hard to be excellent in what they do” Yanamlyn now looks after the Senisim Pasin Campaign, a flagship program of the PNG Tribal Foundation. It is a values-based anti-violence campaign that focuses on changing the cultural mindsets of Papua New Guineans of their view towards our women and girls in our societies. She is also a recipient of The Asia-Pacific Leaders Program of the Obama Foundation. The program brings together leaders from all across Asia and the Pacific who are impacting change in whatever platform they are serving in. Yanamlyn was one of the three successful recipients of the program from Papua New Guinea. “I attended the program as a young leader representing the many PNGeans who share the same experience as growing up in the village, and as a young professional in the Nonprofit sector through the platform that PNG Tribal Foundation provided me with, and other organizations and initiatives I've taken part in and led before finishing University and joining Tribal Foundation. “The convening took place in Kuala Lumpur in December 2019 seeing 200 leaders from across Asia-Pacific attending. “Former POTUS Barack Obama who is the President of the Obama Foundation and his wife former FLOTUS Michelle Obama plus other world leaders joined us to share their experiences at the week long summit. It was absolutely uplifting to be seated in the same room” Yanamlyn shared. Having beaten all odds to come this far, Yanamlyn, believes she has the responsibility to change the education system in her village "I am leading my community initiative called The Atitai Initiative. The initiative was started in 2017 to help schools in the remote parts of the Kamea Region (Kaintiba, Kanabea, Komako, Kotidanga, Kamina) as a start learning resources as well as school materials and supplies for new school libraries with first project worth of K20, 000.00 delivered to Kaintiba Primary School last Christmas with support from more than 5 partners and supporters” We live you with a quote from Barrack Obama. “If you want to change the world, go home". Photo Credit: Obama Foundation Source: PNGBusinessMagazine Next : Impacts Of Education Curriculum Reforms In PNG - Elementary School Teachers Share your Inspirational Stories, Education Issues, Education Talk. Let your voice be heard: Send us your stories to us: email : [email protected] Share this
1 Comment
Clinton Apase
8/12/2020 06:08:56 pm
That's the way to go as it is a very nice initiative. I'm willing to offer my support by going to anyone of the schools there to help the human resources there.
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