Mete welcomes participation in Australia-Papua New Guinea Emerging Leaders Dialogue.

Community Development advocator Mr. Reuben Mete has welcome the invitation by the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the Government of Australia and Papua New Guinea to participate in the Australia-Papua New Guinea Emerging Leaders Dialogue that will be hosted in Sydney during the week of 25 November 2013.

The Dialogue was an initiative of Australian and Papua New Guinea Ministers who agreed at the 2012 Papua New Guinea-Australia Ministerial Forum that Australia would host an annual Emerging Leaders Dialogue to enhance and promote people-to-people links in a new generation of Australians and Papua New Guineans.  The Dialogue is being conducted in cooperation with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and with the support of the Australian aid program.

It will bring together 20 emerging young leaders from the private sector, civil society, and government in both countries of Australia and Papua New Guinea who will meet to share ideas and discuss priority on national issues for both Papua New Guinea and Australia.  These will include, growing the economy and attracting investment in the Asian Century, national infrastructure challenges – new approaches, reform and innovations in the delivery of health and education services and politics and accountability with new expectations.

The Dialogue is an opportunity to form enduring professional connections with other emerging leaders. The aim is to create a network of alumni from the Dialogue to enable ongoing communication between emerging leaders from Papua New Guinea and Australia.

“I am happy to participate and to share my knowledge and ideas as well as engage with the experience of other participants. The Dialogue is indeed a great opportunity to share and learn about practical, innovative solutions and insights into the challenges facing Papua New Guinea and Australia,” Mete said. “Following the Dialogue on November 26, I am grateful to be given an opportunity to meet professional counterparts and state government representatives in Sydney, as well as to participate in policy briefings in Canberra by which Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is expected to attend.”

Mr. Mete pledge to participate and associated closely with the Lowy Institute’s planned PNG New Voices Conference in Port Moresby in the first half of 2014 to offers further networking opportunities with other emerging leaders from Papua New Guinea. Mr. Mete is hoping to take part in this opportunity to engage with other emerging leaders from Papua New Guinea and Australia. Mr. Mete is expected to arrive in Sydney on Monday 25 November together with other Papua New Guinea delegations and returning on Friday 29 November 2013. He will be talking about rural economies (agriculture/working with mining companies) – a subject we could fit into either the topics of ‘growing the economy’ or ‘national infrastructure.’

Lutheran Life Care undergoes weeklong planning workshop on HIV and AIDS.

By Reuben Mete
 

The Lutheran Life Care (LLC), an arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELC PNG) has been undergoing a weeklong planning workshop that begun on Monday 21^st and will continue on till Friday 29^th of October 2013. The aim of the workshop is to transform LLC activities and guidelines after realizing a drastic increase in HIV and AIDS epidemic in Morobe Province and Papua New Guinea in 2011 and 2012 analyzed data.

 

Lutheran Life Care is a ministry to propagate the Gospel of Christ as a Lutheran Christians as being justified by faith. It comes under the Evangelism Department of ELC-PNG which its current program is the HIV and AIDS. LLC was established in 2004 after ELC-PNG recognizes the changing environment concerning the HIV and AIDS in Papua New Guinea.

The Faith Base Organization acknowledges that HIV and AIDS is a treat to our nation and its development prospect as a whole as well as building its capacity to address the epidemic and to be a partner in the response.

Mrs Amad Uma, LLC National Coordinator in her opening remarks on Monday says Lutheran members within this country should now take the ownership of this program to see its continuation into the next few years. She also thank the Church Partnership Program under Aus AID to fund the programs over the past years and also provide funding assistance for the Evaluation, Reflection Workshop and now planning.

The Planning Workshop was well attended by the LLC Program Coordinators and officers from the Evangelism Department of ELC PNG and facilitated by the Melanesian Organization for Development (MODe). Department Secretary Rev. Binora when welcoming the workshop participants says Lutheran Church is not an emotional church but a faith church thus the workshop should reflect on the Bible teachings and guidance.

Incoming ELC PNG National Youth Director Mr. Reuben Mete says the rate by which the epidemic is growing in Papua New Guinea is very alarming at the moment. He says with the given figure of 416 new HIV positive cases detected in 2012 within Morobe Province, the province is now sitting on a time bomb.  “This clearly shows that there has been a social breakdown within all our communities despite Lae city being the Head quarter of many Christian denominations including the ELC PNG,” Mete says.