Illuminating futures

A LOCAL primary school has given the gift of light to children living in rural Papua New Guinea following generous community donations.

Armstrong Creek School last year partnered with the SolarBuddy charity to enlighten a global community by providing opportunities for children unable to readily access electricity.

The partnership was led by the student’s voice, who wanted to create a difference for children just like them.

Learning specialist Amber McCook said the kids found a big sense of achievement through working together across age groups to create a positive outcome.

“The students selected this charity through a global impact study we were doing,” she said.

“We started to think about how we could raise money to support students in other countries and they liked this one because they were able to construct something that would be used to support others.

“The SolarBuddys were delivered to Papua New Guinea two weeks ago and for the students to see the impact they had through constructing and fundraising, and to be able to see how that was delivered in third world country, was really powerful.”

The school was able to raise $1,674 to construct 50 solar lights, each with the capacity to run for 10 hours when fully charged.

Samson was one of the 50 SolarBuddy recipients from the Kokoda region in rural Papua New Guinea where access to electricity is difficult for families.

“Ever since I received my Solar Buddy light, my family has not had to spend any money on kerosene,” he said.

“This is better because kerosene is very dangerous, it hurts our eyes when we read and our chest when we breathe.”

Samson says having access to a SolarBuddy at night helps him and his three siblings read to each other and complete their school work.

Ms McCook said the experience has been empowering for the Armstrong Creek students who overcame several complications as a result of the pandemic.

“The fundraiser went live the day before we went into the second lockdown, so it was a very difficult to try and raise funds for a country overseas when people were struggling here,” she said.

“Families contributed what they could but obviously it wasn’t very stable, and people lost their jobs.

“We decided to go ahead with it because it was really important for the students to see they could still make an impact during this time and stopping it would be just another thing that was cancelled for them and the community.”

A GoFundMe page was set up to help the primary school raise the necessary funds, with the community stepping up despite falling on challenging times.

Warralily Newland developers heard of the fundraiser and contributed $500 to get the program over the line.

Community development officer Nina Bendon said the group was happy to support to such a powerful program.

“A program like this inspires innovation within our community and connects children to our global community, which is invaluable,” Ms Bendon said.