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Two local Belmore schools in Sydney, Australia have recently collaborated to make a significant donation of used school furniture destined for disadvantaged schools in Papua New Guinea.
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Belmore and Belmore South Primary School donated a total of 153 school desks, 178 chairs and other classroom equipment which was carefully packed into a large shipping container by school-aged youth volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elizabeth Russo, Principal of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School said of the initiative, “It was fabulous for the volunteers to move furniture from our school to ship to Papua New Guinea. I really appreciated working with Belmore South Primary School and Pacific Assist to support other communities.”
Lisa Trewin, School Administrative Manager of Belmore South Primary School noted, “Our school has recently installed future focused furniture in our classrooms so when the opportunity arose to collaborate with the Pacific Assist team and our neighbours at St Joseph’s Primary School, we jumped at the opportunity. We are so happy that our loved classroom furniture will find a new home in Papua New Guinea.”
Donations will be going to several schools in the highlands that were severely hit by two earthquakes last year. One of these was a 7.2-magnitude quake that hit on Tuesday 27th February 2018 about 30km north of the town of Bulolo, in the Morobe Province. The other large earthquake was in October.
When the shipment arrives in the port of Lae, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will unpack the deliveries and transport them up to the highlands to Hela Province where it will be distributed schools in Magarima High School, Tari High School and Kulanda community School in Tari.
The project was coordinated by Pacific Assist, an Australian and New Zealand based not-for-profit charity providing education, health and well-being, economic development, and humanitarian assistance to countries in the South Pacific.