'A'  4  MATHS Learning Centres' Managing Director, Jim Moreley, is giving his account of the situation in the Western Province:

After seeing the desperately poor people with little PNG Government support for teaching materials, it became obvious that the plight of the children trying to get an education so that they could have a better life was desperate.  The District School is actually made of timber and some of the windows have glass in them.  The desks are made from mostly local bush saplings.

Desperation and hopelessness seemed to be the only words to describe the reality facing the people of the Western Province.  One of the men, suffering from a badly infected injury to his foot (which was treated with some of the boxes of the medical supplies that we, on the fishing trip, brought with us) summed it all up when he said to me, "We get sick, we live or we die.  We are the forgotten people."

On another occasion, a young girl who had been bitten by a snake was untreated and the villagers were just waiting to see what would happen to her... whether she would recover or not.

 

After seeing the schools in 2008, I made plans to bring the 'A'  4  MATHS Programmes to the Western Province.  In 2009, I brought several boxes of 'A'  4  MATHS' material, some 100 kg of excess baggage, which six or eight fishermen helped me carry into PNG.

Not knowing whether enough electricity would be available to run any cassette players, I brought multiple copies of our 66 textbooks and learning materials, but no audio tutorials.

During the presentation ceremony and prior to seeing the 'A'  4  MATHS products, the head teacher, who is on the national curriculum selection committee, said the PNG Department of Education had recently held a conference revealing new, advanced teaching strategies soon to be initiated, but no material was provided.

During the presentation of the 'A'  4  MATHS Programme, the several teachers in attendance looked over the various components, discussing these among themselves.

The head teacher, with tears in his eyes, said our material was virtually identical to the NEW materials being promised by the PNG Department of Education and he said these materials would have a wonderful impact on the lives of the students in the Bensbach schools!  I asked if they had tape recorders with rechargeable batteries and he said they only had a few. We discussed what they had and I promised that I would put a shipment of audio recordings to accompany our textbooks, plus assessment Manuals and other materisals together and ship these to him.

Once back in Sydney, we put a collection of audio and other materials together and couriered it to Mt Hagen in the PNG Central Highlands, where the material was flown by private charter aircraft, when it became available, to Bensbach.

Early feedback from the Bensbach school teachers is very encouraging, indeed....

 

Early comments have comeback that our material is proving wonderful for the children!

 

All in all, we are hopeful that approximately $20,000 worth of materials will be worth a an incalculable amount to the children in the wilderness schools at Bensbach.

 

We have had three more letters requesting additional maths books and supplementary materials!