St Theresa Primary School is the second school in the Gulf Province to benefit from a Digicel PNG Foundation funded project following the launch of a double classroom structure at the school last week Saturday.

The first primary school in Gulf to benefit was Savaiviri Primary School.

St. Theresa Primary School’s new steel kit classrooms were funded by Digicel Foundation at a cost of K90,000 and consists of an office space, 20 new double school benches, school black boards, a water tank, two pit toilets and two bucket showers for the female students which creates a favorable learning environment for more than 40 students.

St. Theresa is a Catholic Church agency school which was established in the 1950s, catering for a population of over 5000 people in the area. They have a six-in-one school building which houses six classes for grade 3 to grade 8.

Like most other rural schools, St. Theresa has not received much external support other than that from the community assisting with maintenance over the years. The classrooms are run down and badly affected by termites, leaking roofs, and deteriorating concrete flooring.

Despite the dilapidating state of the classrooms, the community ownership is good which shows parents and the community always willing to give a hand with any work at the school. The school was elevated last year to a level 4 school and for the first time had its grade intake this year. It has an enrolment of 178 students and six teaching staff.

Marina van der Vlies, CEO of the Digicel Foundation said; “St Theresa Community School and the Moveave people of the Gulf Province have embraced this humble school and truly made it their own. They have cleaned and fixed and assisted as best they could for the benefit of their children’s education. We are delighted to have supported the St Theresa Primary School by providing them with this educational infrastructure which gives the school and community the opportunity to better provide basic education for their children. We work with communities like Moveave who show self reliance and we help them develop to become even stronger communities for the future.”

To date the Digicel Foundation has funded 131 community based projects covering 20 provinces in PNG and put K8 million back into marginalized PNG communities which has directly impacted more than 100,000 people. The Digicel Foundation plans to continue the funding of community projects in the area of basic education and health aiming to support communities as they become more self-reliant in the future. 

 ENDS