PNG Projects

Part of the Kokoda Challenge Association's Goals is to support the Kokoda Community and assist the descendants of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.  

As such, when the 2009 Kokoda Kids headed to Papua New Guinea in September to walk the Kokoda track, so did a small working party from our organisation who, along with the Kokoda Kids on the village experience, worked on several buildings at the Kokoda Primary School and Kokoda Memorial Hospital. 

Kokoda Village is in a valley surrounded by spectacular mountains that are home to the famous Kokoda Track. The community consists of a school, hospital, 2 small shops, the Kokoda Airstrip and surrounding small villages.  In 2008 there was approximately 17 million dollars spent with trekking companies but very little of this money passes onto the Kokoda Village Primary School and Kokoda Memorial Hospital. 

The local Primary School and Hospital are in desperate need of financial assistance and support, and as such the Kokoda Challenge Association has adopted these two community services as our projects.

In 2009 whilst in Kokoda our working party:

• Purchased and helped with delivery of all repair equipment (roofing, timber etc) including 3 drums of diesel to run the Kokoda Memorial Hospital generator which was desperately required.
  
• Painted and re-roofed two classrooms and a teachers building at the Kokoda Primary School.
• Painted and undertook a variety of repair work at the Kokoda Memorial Hospital.
• Our volunteer doctor, fondly renamed Dr. Angel by the locals, helped out at the hospital for the duration of the trip being of great assistance as there are no doctors, only nurses.
  
• Hosted a sports day with the Kokoda Kids at the Primary School to which over 400 local village children attended and competed in sports such as running relays, soccer, touch football, captain ball, volley ball and tug of war.  All winners were presented with individual medallions and all sporting equipment remained at the school for future use.
• Presented the hospital with over $15,000 in first aid supplies.

To view photographs of the PNG Projects click here.

The Kokoda Challenge Association is committed to providing ongoing on the ground assistance to the Kokoda Community and has pledged to spend 5% of our annual donations in Kokoda.  One of our goals for 2010 is to establish a regular turnover of volunteer doctors to support the 23,000 locals that rely on the services of the Kokoda Memorial Hospital.

The Kokoda Village Primary school urgently needs toilets.  At the moment they use two pit toilets with no running water to wash their hands. That's 500 students – two pit toilets! We are planning to raise funds to install a septic toilet system to accommodate 500 students and introduce an education program for good sanitation.

We are planning to put together a maintenance team to go over in 2010 to continue work on the Kokoda Primary School and Kokoda Memorial Hospital and other community services. If you are interested in helping the Kokoda Community or being part of the 2010 maintenance team please visit Ways You Can Help.