DONATE GOODS FOR VILLAGE SCHOOLS

Many schools in rural villages continue to face significant shortages of classroom equipment. This results in students sitting on a bare floor on a hot day while their teacher writes on the blackboard with chalk. This affects the learning environment, the children’s comfort, their ability to concentrate, and overall learning experience.

In order to assist these schools, HEAPS Australia receives regular donations of second-hand office and classroom furnishings. They are stored at Storage King Perth Airport through our Support Partnership. Then, they were packed tightly into a sea container and sailed to Papua New Guinea. Swire Shipping Liner Service, operated by the China Navigation Company Pte Ltd (CNCo), has a long-term working partnership with HEAPS. They assist by providing free sea freight for their loaned sea containers. Without both companies’ wonderful support, this project would not be possible.

HEAPS is now into its 7th year of gifting and has helped 51 marginalised village schools. The ongoing project has helped break the cycle of poverty by providing better-equipped classrooms and an improved learning environment. This is not a handout service! It requires local villagers’ involvement in collecting goods from the wharf and transporting them over long distances to their villages, along muddy roads by truck and upriver in canoes.

Some schools have expanded their student numbers through the community, building new classrooms, and some remote schools have been reopened through the Department of Education, providing teachers.

The success of this project has been through intersectoral collaboration, with businesses, schools, the private sector, and non-profits partnering together to address the PNG Government’s struggle to service isolated schools across the country.

Please contact HEAPS Australia if you are able to gift goods for Papua New Guinea Elementary and Primary level isolated schools.