The first class that Peter Laiam set up was out in the open under a tree.
Mr. Peter Laiam in the middle in front of their new classroom
Peter is a community leader from Goilala in the Central Province but he is not the sort of person you would expect to set up a school.
He lives in the dump in the suburb of Baruni in the national capital of Port Moresby. Children living in this community have never been to school.
Every day of their lives are spent at the dump collecting food scraps and anything useful they can find for makeshift houses.
Peter Laiam fell for his children so decided to go and see his Catholic Diocese for some assistance. A workshop was organized by an NGO and a request for representative from Catholic Diocese was sent. Peter Laiam was selected to attend this workshop. He participated in this workshop in learning how to develop small and big short story books and how to use those materials to teach his learners how to read and write in their vernacular.
Matilda Laiam, Peter wife teaching the class
With the skills and knowledge learnt, Peter Laiam went back to his community and started a tokples pre-school for children. With the assistance from the Diocese, a tokples pre-school was established. Classess were conducted under the trees with children sitting on the ground and writing and drawing using chalks, crayons, slates and scrape papers donated by the Diocese. As the school increased in numbers with children coming in from around the nearby community, need for a better classroom and tables and chairs encouraged Mr. Peter Laiaim to do publicity of his school.
The Proma company’s founder in Australia saw the need of this school and so decided to assist in building a permanent classroom and donated library books, books to write on, pencils, crayons, chalks, slates, papers, tables and chairs to sit on. The excitement of school stationeries boosted the morale of the children to attend classes.
Founder of Proma Product watches as boxes of materials are being unpacked by fellow collegues.
Each day the number of children increased. Besides learning the basics of learning to read and write, they were taught how to live a healthy living. Students that have attended this literacy school are doing better in their formal education.
The school has been evacuated in 2010 to a new location at Laloki, a suburb outside of NCD, after a tribal clash between the Goilalas and the landowners of Baruni dump.