Joeri Kalwij
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The fun thing about my line of work is that I can engage in a wide variety of Community Development initiatives, alongside the commercial part of the Coffee Exports business. Recently we have identified three education development programmes. Together with the Digicel Foundation PNG, new Community Learning Centres were donated to several communities. Below a short story. (from: website Digicel Foundation)
The Digicel Foundation strives to support projects that provide opportunities that will inspire and build a positive and brighter future for the communities within PNG. One of Digicel Foundation’s core beliefs is that as we grow our community should grow with us. The Community Learning Center in Masi Community is the realization of Digicel Foundation to make a difference and play a positive role in the people’s lives in PNG.
The Digicel Foundation heard about Masi Elementary school through, Joeri Kalwij of Monpi Coffee Sustainable services and his partner Michelle the Principal at the Goroka Preparatory School (GPS). Joeri and his partner first learnt about Massey Elementary School through the teachers who were working at GPS who were from Masi community.GPS has now started an outreach program to support other schools that are not so fortunate and need extra school materials such as Massey Pre School. Massey elementary school was started a few years ago and has a total of 60 pre-school and elementary children and two voluntary Teachers.
The Massey community was excited and overwhelmed with the new CLC. They have waited for years for such an improvement to take place to better the lives of their future generations. They have 3 small bush material classrooms which recently received a second hand tin roof which was a major improvement. With the new CLC in place the children will now have access to a neat and very dry environment for reading and studying purposes. In conjunction with the CLC the GPS has also sent out an invitation to the Massey Elementary School Teachers to attend future workshops which will be hosted by GPS from time to time to enrich their current teaching techniques.
I’ll go back soon to take some photo’s.
Tags: Community Development, Development, digicel foundation, education, EHP, Goroka, Joeri Kalwij, PNG, project
Riots and looting in Goroka
Tags: Asians, Eastern Highlands, EHP, Goroka, Highlands, Joeri Kalwij, looting, Papua new Guinea, photography, Photos, Pics, Pictures, PNG, post courier, Riots, Riots Goroka, Violence
A lot, probably most of the tradestores in PNG are owned and run by Asians. What gets to a lot of the PNG folk is that they also operate little kai-bars and small businesses. “That’s ours to run! “. Well, shit hit the fan and after riots and looting In Moresby, and in Lae, yesterday the unrest hit Kainantu. All shops were looted. And right on schedule it hit Goroka today. Big mob out this morning, just waiting for the first rock to be thrown as a starting sign to go crazy. In West some teargas grenades could not prevent Bintangor getting hit. Shops at the market are ‘done’ already.
Read an article from The National for a bit more background ‘PNG style’. Better written and with a bit more history is the BBC report.
More pictures
Tags: Asia, Asians, Chinese, Goroka, Joeri Kalwij, looting, photography, PNG, post courier, Riots, The National, update
The season is about to start. A lot of prep. work to be done. For me it means putting in extra hours to visit every single supplier and to conduct inspections before farmers get too busy with their coffee trees. This week I planned to send my team out to 2 remote areas. So far we did not manage to get to our coffee suppliers. The highway is closed due to a landslide….that is an easy fix, but as usual the road cannot be fixed before local ‘roadside’ people get their greedy hands on some “compensation” cash. [WHAT FOR???] I so hate these compensation claims. They hold the road and towns hostage. How about a zero tolerance policy by the gouvernment??
The second team did not make it either. Due to previous fighting the area is a ‘no-go-zone’ for a while. I hope things quiet down soon. I am starting to get nervous… can I get the work done before coffee certification audits are due?? Fingers crossed!
To get in the mood some new ‘coffee shots’ in the PNG gallery. Enjoy.
Tags: beans, coffee, export, grean bean, hands, Joeri Kalwij, photography
