News Story

Assistance Across Borders: To Papua New Guinea, with Love from Australia

As international travel restrictions are enforced, schools in Australia and Papua New Guinea show how the act of giving can still occur across borders

Last month, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worked alongside Pacific Assist, a not-for-profit charity, to collect, pack and ship containers of furniture donated by two schools in Melbourne and Sydney to schools in Lae, Papua New Guinea.

© 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

        

The project was coordinated by Pacific Assist and was granted permission by the Department of Education and Training and Department of Health and Human Services before Melbourne’s Stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions.

Eleven missionaries from Sydney and 16 missionaries from Melbourne provided the manpower to pack the classroom furniture and equipment. One of the missionaries, who is from Papua New Guinea, expressed that the project had special significance for him.

Missionaries load furniture onto a shipping container, part of a Latter-day Saint Charities/Pacific Assist project to help Papua New Guinean school communities. July 2020.
Missionaries load furniture onto a shipping container, part of a Latter-day Saint Charities/Pacific Assist project to help Papua New Guinean school communities. July 2020.© 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
         

A total of 353 tables and desks, 979 chairs and other assorted classroom equipment including storage containers, bookshelves, whiteboards and books were donated.

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Missionaries lend a hand by loading donated school furniture, bound for Papua New Guinea. © 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
      

The donated equipment will be distributed by representatives of the Church’s Welfare and Self-Reliance Department and local volunteers in North Papua New Guinea.

Volunteers unload school furniture in Papua New Guinea.
Volunteers unload school furniture in Papua New Guinea.© 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
    

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