It was an absolute pleasure and an honour for the Melbourne Girls Grammar and Melbourne Grammar School Year 11 students and MGGS PNG co-ordinator Sue Clifford to visit the beautiful remote villages of the Milne Bay Province in PNG. We offered medical and educational support to the villages of Wedau, Dogura, Lavora, Jivari, Manubada, Vidia, Wamira One and Aigura.

We would like to thank the School community once again for their generous support with fundraising and donations of supplies. We are continuing to build relationships with the people of the Milne Bay Province and the support we offer is always so greatly appreciated.

Our major donation this year was the dinghy Ora Et Labora (translation: Pray and Work; the MGS motto). The Principal of Holy Name, Mr George Parascos, was delighted with our gift and the School Councillor, Mr Neil Dogabu spoke about the many benefits, including the lives it will save. The Holy Name School has lost six students in the past ten years trying to cross flooded rivers to return to school on time.

Thanks to the generosity of Ms Ilga Haase (Merton Hall Librarian) and the Project Holy Name team we are able to fund an operation and associated transport costs for one of the villagers. Mr Washington Tere Tere from the village of Lavora presented to the medical clinic with a huge hernia on the front of his stomach that has caused years of chronic pain. Like many coastal people Washington lives a subsistence life, has no income and is too unwell to leave the village to find work. When told of the donation Washington and his whole village were in tears. We sincerely hope that the Project Holy Name team will find him in good health next year.

The students all worked with determination and courage in the medical clinics, dressing wounds, rubbing cream onto fungal infections, recording medical details, distributing medicines or sometimes just finding some cool shade under a tree to gather a group and read a story from the picture books we had bought with us and subsequently left behind for the Elementary teachers.

The village stays were once again a success. All of the students agree that this has been a life changing experience for them. It has given them a greater understanding of how a remote village functions in a lesser developed country and a new-found respect for humankind. Several students say that this experience has influenced their decision to participate in further humanitarian work.

The village families have only the basic material possessions, (ie pots, pans, few clothes, one pair of shoes if they are lucky, buckets for laundry and fetching water, kerosene lanterns, etc) but they have the heart and the soul of the entire world. They are caring, giving, loving, calm, unselfish, independent, strong, courageous human beings who welcomed us with smiles, open arms and frangipani leas and are always sad to see us leave. It is humbling to be given a beautiful straw basket because you have changed someone’s life by giving them a pair of second hand glasses from our lost property cupboard.

Although poor and with limited access to medical support, education and food, the villagers are very rich in family values, culture and in spirit. Our students came to realise how materialistic our society has become and what few possessions are needed to go about your daily life.

Looking towards 2010

It would be greatly appreciated if members of the School Community could begin working towards next year’s trip by donating their spectacles. If you receive a new pair of glasses in the next twelve months or if you have sunglasses lying around, Project Holy Name would love them. The word goes out across the villages very quickly when you arrive with glasses and within moments you are “changing lives”.

The Dogura Health Centre is in desperate need of supplies and we have been provided with a wish list for consideration in 2010. If you think you can offer any assistance please contact Sue Clifford in the Deputy Principal’s Office Office on (+61 3) 9862 9208 or email: Sue.Clifford@mggs.vic.edu.au