Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) celebrated International Day of the Girl Child with PNG Air this week to thank the airline for their vital contribution to literacy across the country.
The children gave a warm welcome to PNG Air Chief Commercial Officer, Simon Pitt, a Pilot, and team with flying paper planes to the organization’s 6 Mile Library Learning Centre.
The children enrolled at the centre read the book titled, ‘When I Grow Up, I want to be a Pilot’ produced with PNG Air in 2021. It is important to show young girls that they too can aspire to professional roles, which are normally male dominated.
From June 2021 to June 2023, PNG Air has assisted BbP to fly the organizations’ popular School Library Kits to 342 schools in all provinces serviced by the airline. This represents several tons of cargo every month and a total of 171,766 books.
Most school libraries across the country need books and teaching resources and it is only thanks to the partnership PNG Air, that BbP can provide donations of books to such a high number of schools in both rural and remote parts of the country.
BbP Executive Officer, Leanne Resson stated that by being able to provide students with the right tools for their education is vital to improve education outcomes in the country. Restoring school libraries will help entire school communities to improve education outcomes and support the teachers with resources for the classroom.
“We are grateful for PNG Air’s long-term support which allows us to restore school libraries across the country. A true community service.”