Hope Institute in Tari-Pori District of Hela province has delivered its first batch of graduates this week to work in Australia under the Pacific-Australia Labour Mobility scheme. Albert Angai age 35; Kingston Arigo, 31; Ison Tomai, 25 and Aluako Tako age 24, make up the first batch of the successful 28 candidates who passed the scheme’s recruitment process with Hope Institute processing the rest to follow suit. The four men, who dropped out of high school and altogether spent a total of nearly thirty years as unemployed village men, have made a big jump after being accepted to work for Northern Cooperative Meat Company Limited (NCMCL) which is Australia’s biggest meat processing cooperative. Last week, the young Tari-Pori men signed their four- year contract with NCMCL in which will now see them departing for Port Moresby on Monday, 12th August 2024, for Brisbane, Australia, to work in the Australian meat processing industry. They will be based in Casino, a small farming town in New South Wales about three hours drive out of Brisbane. Prime Minister and Member for Tari-Pori, James Marape, initiated the programme and with that, continues to support Hope Institute through the Tari-Pori District Development Authority (DDA). PM Marape met the four former students to congratulate them and impart some words of advice before their departure. “Hope Institute is what I call the ‘second-chance education’. We give a second chance to our young people who have dropped out of grade nine or ten and graduate them with a Grade twelve certificate and with that, I am very pleased to see that this has happened for the four of you in which you are now going to work in Australia and make good money to support yourselves as well as your families.” “You lead our Tari-Pori team to Australia under the labor mobility scheme, so you have a big responsibility to excel in your work and behavior, so the opportunity remains open for more like you to go down to Australia.” Tari-Pori District will go further and link the men to further education in Australia as they work, adding that the district will only send Grade twelve graduates who must have a pastor’s character reference for work and study in Australia. With that, the four men expressed deep appreciation to PM Marape for the blessing of Hope Institute and for pushing Tari-Pori DDA to utilize the Labour Mobility programme through which they are recruited. Speaking on behalf of the quartet, Albert Angai expressed that this is a very big blessing and thanked their local member and Prime Minister as well as his wife, Mrs. Rachael Marape for opening and running Hope Institute. “We also thank the school board as well as the school principal, Mark Anthony and the staff for giving us this opportunity. We also thank Tari-Pori DDA for putting us on this programme and are very excited to go to Australia.” Moreover, under their employment contract, they will be paid nearly AUD$25 per hour every week and their medical expenses, health cover and accommodation costs will be taken care of by their employer, while costs of their airfares to and from Australia are being deducted against their salaries. Also, with the money earned they can now better support their families back home in Hela and also save to pursue further education or start up small businesses later after the conclusion of their contracts. Angai, Arigo, Tomai and Tako each dropped out of high school beginning in 2009. Albert Angai couldn’t complete his eleventh grade at Hoiebia High School because of school fee problems, Kingston Arigo was also forced out of Koroba Secondary School in 2009 because of tribal fights. Ison Tomai dropped out of Togoba Secondary School in Western Highlands province due to academic purposes and Aluako Tako also encountered financial hardship and had to end his grade eleven at Hoiebia High School in 2016. When Hope Institute opened in 2020 offering ‘free education’, the men were re-enrolled into school and graduated in 2022 as they received their grade twelve certificates. Hope Institute fully funds all high school programmes from grade seven to twelve so the people of Tari-Pori who have been forced out of school can be given a second chance to complete their education at no costs. Hope Institute is managed through the Tari-Pori DDA and overseen by the local Member, PM Marape and wife, Mrs. Rachael Marape.