“A rise in bad habits and issues in the community was one of the reasons why we decided to start this rugby club and we started to reintroduce clean ups.”
Mozart explained that they saw that the interest to play rugby was still there, so they decided to start a rugby league club and that led to them establishing the rugby league club last year.
“We started the team last year and played our first tournament as a team in the Southern Regional Nines competition.”
“This year were travelling to Alotau to attend the Hidomo 9s Tournament and that will be the second tournament that we’ll be participating in.”
Kaiulo stated that the boys are excited because this is the first time, they’re all going to be traveling out of Port Moresby together as a team.
The Panthers coach said that the team was aiming to gain exposure for its players from this tournament because their club is fairly new and hopes that they take home a trophy from competitions in the future.
“Most of the boys don’t have the opportunity to showcase their skills, so we’re not participating for ranking, we just want exposure for the boys.”
“We’re not an experienced club who have won tournaments but maybe in the next three or four tournaments, we’ll be aiming to take home the cup or plate or bowl.
He said that it was a challenge to get the boys to come and train and to keep them there as it is really hard to persuade them to come and play, train or do something and at the end of the day, the bigger picture is just trying to help get them out of their bad habits.
“It was a bit difficult for them because the moment you take them out of what they’re used to, it’s a struggle to them as they don’t earn anything.”
“I think it’s because most of them are hooked up to the easy way out like selling drugs and alcohol, getting involved in bag snatching and all that. It’s just that we need to be very patient.”
According to Kaiulo, the team has been doing volunteer work with a waste management company that was contracted to clean up Ela Beach for three months last year and this year as well.
For a small club, Mr. Kaiulo said searching for financial sponsorships is a challenge as well.
“Right now, we haven’t found any major sponsors yet so we’re just taking it out from our pockets, digging deep to provide meals for the boys after training.”
He stated that the club does have a goal of getting sponsors and they are willing to do the hard yards and secure a sponsor for their funding.
“We all go to Ela Beach to enjoy so we thought that it would be good to go and clean up and fortunately found a sponsor. Currently, we have a sponsor that’s providing for some of the things that the club needs. That’s how we got this one sponsor with us assisting us to attend the Hidomo 9s.”
Meanwhile, the Arehava Panthers club is using this platform to identify their other areas the boys may be skilled in.
“Some of the boys are self-taught graphic designers and they’re designing our walk on t-shirts as an opportunity to showcase their skills so hopefully there’s some exposure that some companies or NGOs can see what we’re doing to empower other boys to turn to positive things in the community.”
“I hope that people out there see what we’re doing and come on board and help us because it’s not a one-man thing, we need collective industries to also step in and help. As they say, at the end of the day, a good community is good for the country.” 
