Making a difference in Papua New Guinea

A BELLARINE builder has recently returned from Papua New Guinea after lending a hand as part of a Rotary Club of Torquay’s school development project.

Ned McLarnon headed over to the Lese Oalai school for just over two weeks, where he supervised and mentored those in the village to construct waterless composting toilets.

“The idea was we wanted a core group that I could try and help educate and train and then that core group could pass those skills on,” he said.

“We tried to cram a four -ear carpentry apprenticeship into two weeks.

“A number of the people had some carpentry skills already, some construction experience and a couple of people had pretty good English.”

Spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Torquay, in conjunction with other clubs and the Peter Nathan Loko Foundation, the project is rebuilding the school’s facilities.

Mr McLarnon said a lot of work had been done on the project before he was involved or even knew about it.

“Now that I do know about it and have had boots on the ground over there and interacted with the community and kids, it’s not something I want to walk away from.

“I definitely will be staying on and likely going back for an opening ceremony and then seeing what comes next after that.”

Before he went over, the school had pit toilets, which were out of service, and no toilets available for staff and students.

Mr McLarnon volunteered to go over, saying it was something he had in the back of his mind.

“I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while and the first time I saw anything similar was for a school in Uganda and I thought that would be incredible to go and do something like this and give back.”

“I have a set of skills and the fact that I’m in a position where I can leave my life, leave my business for a couple of weeks, I thought ‘Let’s do it’.

“Two weeks of my life is literally going to change the course of direction for those kids, it’s pretty powerful.”

The structure for the toilets is now nearing completion, with the villagers doing the finishing works.

“What was important to me was getting the main structure done, all of the cladding’s and the finishing’s, if it’s a little bit off here or there it’s okay, but the idea is we don’t want the building falling down,” Mr McLarnon said.

Before returning, they set one of the village elders up with a phone and mobile data, allowing them to get in contact with Mr McLarnon when they have questions and keep him up to date with the project.

The international project is ongoing and aims to address a number of core issues in Lese Oalai including providing a library, reticulated water and classrooms, in addition to the composting toilets.

Donations for materials and equipment for the project can be made at rawcs.org.au/explore-projects under the project number 41 and the year registered 2021-22.