Project Update: Adult Literacy Program | From Anglican Adult Literacy Class to Further Education in Tourism and Hospitality

September 2020

From an interview between PNG Church Partnership Program Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Bonnie Mombo, and Anglicare Adult Literacy Graduate Judith Larlen.

What do students do once they complete an Anglicare Papua New Guinea Adult Literacy course? Some, like 35-year-old Judith Larlen, go on to further education.

Judith, a recent graduate from Laheri Adult Literacy School in Talasia District, West New Britain province, has commenced Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Tourism and Hospitality at Poinini.

For Judith, formal education ended at Grade 5, when her parents decided they could only afford to send her brothers to high school. Originally from East Sepik, Judith moved with her parents to West New Britain and married a local man, with whom she had a son, now 10. Five years ago, her husband left the family, and Judith started working on the small family palm oil plot to provide for herself and her son, since that was the only work available to her, given her lack of formal qualifications.

This all changed a year ago, when the Anglicare PNG Literacy Officer arrived in her district informing people about a new Adult Literacy class that would soon start in Laheri.

Judith decided to enroll straight away. Since she could already read and write both Tok Pisin and English, she was able to begin at Level 4, the top level. During her year at the school, she learned numeracy and life skills, including different types of baking, but found her strengths lay in mathematics. She was a very proud student at her graduation, which was attended by the principal of the Poinini TVET college, among others.

Laheri Adult Literacy School has a strategic partnership with Poinini TVET college. It was through this partnership that Judith and four other students from Laheri Adult Literacy school were invited to sit the entry test for the new TVET intake. When Judith opened the test paper, she was surprised that she could confidently answer the questions.

Judith was selected! She was over-joyed and thanked the Lord for answering her prayer and making these things possible for her. She also could not thank her hard-working teachers at Laheri enough for the help they had given her, as well as the Project Officer and Adult Literacy Officer for providing this opportunity.

Judith is now studying for her Certificate of Tourism and Hospitality and will graduate next year. After that she said she wants to study for her diploma, and then join the tourism industry, with the long-term aim of working in a hotel. She is deeply grateful for the opportunity to transform her life from one of hopelessness to one with a much brighter future.

Written by Bonnie Mombo, PNG Church Partnership Program Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.

ABM joins with Judith in thanking our generous supporters, Anglicare PNG, the Anglican Diocsese of New Guinea Islands, and the PNG Church Partnership Program funded by the Australian Government #PNGCPP; #PNGAusPartnership

Anglicare PNG is the social welfare and development arm of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea.

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Your generous donation to ABM’s Martyrs Appeal this year will strengthen the work of Newton Theological College and the Church’s Adult Literacy program, contributing to realising the vision of the New Guinea Martyrs for modern Papua New Guinea.