Community Development

Disaster Relief

The Kokoda Track Foundation has responded to a number of disasters in PNG since it began working in the country.

Cyclone Guba

In November 2007, the Oro Province (including the Kokoda district) was declared a natural disaster zone as a result of the devastating effects of Cyclone Guba. More than 350 people were killed by torrential rains, flooding, and high seas and nearly 150,000 people lost their homes due to flooding. The majority of communities in PNG survive on a subsistence based lifestyle where their main source of food and income comes from the village garden. The devastating effects of Cyclone Guba were therefore extreme and cost hundreds of thousands of Oro citizens their livelihood.

As soon as the scale of the emergency was apparent, the Foundation made an immediate donation of $20,000 in emergency medical supplies to Popondetta Hospital and Kokoda Memorial Hospital. Shortly afterwards, we sent another $20,000 worth of emergency medical supplies. Then, in a remarkable act of generosity, the global courier group, DHL, provided, free of charge, its Trans-Tasman aeroplane, The Jedi, to PNG, delivering 15 tonnes of emergency equipment which had been donated, by Sydney-based not-for-profit organisation, Overseas Disaster Resources Inc. DHL answered our call and dropped everything to drop the shipment of towels, sheets, blankets, workwear, cooking & eating utensils, tools, rope and tarpaulins.

New Ireland Storm

In December 2008 king tides and flooding swept away coastline homes and displaced thousands of villages in the New Ireland province. Waves were reported up to 5 metres tall and tens of thousands of local villagers were affected by strorm water and flooding. The Kokoda Track Foundation partnered with the Exodus Foundation, Overseas Disaster Resources, trek company South Sea Horizons and the New Ireland Government to arrange the delivery of distaster relief equipment and resources. A number of containers of tarpaulins, blankets, and emergency food were delivered to the Province to assist the worst affected communities.

Oro Province Flooding

Two years after Cyclone Guba washed away bridges, schools, health centres, and food gardens in the Oro Province, the local communities were hit with more torrential rains and severe flooding. In December 2009, the Foundation responded to the calls of Oro communities which were hit by severe flooding, once again destroying food gardens and contaminating clean food and water supplies. The Foundation responded immediately with 11,000 Kina worth of funding for food and water supplies which were delivered by our on-the-ground partners, the Anglican Response to Oro Disaster team. The funds were used to purchase and distribute rice, tinned fish, and clean water to the worst affected areas, particularly in the Ijivitari district.

Northern Province Food Restoration Program

The success of the Foundation’s Kokoda Cyclone Appeal allowed us to commit $150,000 to create a series of seed multiplication gardens aimed at helping those devastated by Cyclone Guba to re-establish their food gardens – their predominant source of food and income. The Foundation partnered with the Oro Province’s Anglican Diocese, under the guidance of Bishop Joe Kopapa, to establish thriving nurseries at three locations across the Oro province - Dobodura, Ilimo, and Martyrs School.

This project has been a remarkable success! In 2010, the three mother seed nurseries are well advanced and well supported by the local communities. They have also distrubuted vital crops to more than 30 satellite nurseries that have been established throughout the Oro Province. More than 40,000 varieties of crops have been distributed throughout the Province and over 500 people have been given training by our nursery managers. It is vital that all villagers who lost their food gardens to Cyclone Guba access the strains of crops being grown in our nurseries to ensure that their gardens are resistant to pest and disease and that the local people restore a healthy balance to their diets. The Foundation will continue to monitor and support these nurseries throughout 2010 and the priority will now be on distributing the crops to remote areas that can only be accessed via water.

Krappers for Kokoda

The Foundation's Krappers for Kokoda project is installing eco-sustainable toilets in a number of villages and schools along the Kokoda Track. This project is being implemented in partnership with trek company No Roads and volunteer group Team BIGFISH. This program was prompted by the appalling state of toilet blocks in many schools and the need for more toilets alongside waterways along the Track especially due to the exponential growth in the trekking industry. SOme current toilets are a serious health hazard to individuals as well as a major disincentive to children to attend school.

The first Krappers for Kokoda eco-toilet was installed in Kagi village, with the second and third installed in the technical school in Kokoda village (Kokoda Skills Training Centre) and Iarowari High School in Sogeri village.

In 2010, the Foundation will continue the project and has identified 4 additional sites along the Kokoda Track in which eco-toilets will be installed. We are currently consulting with landowners and the Kokoda Track Authority and the toilets will be installed later in the year.

Sustainable Tourism Plan

Immediately following the formation of the Kokoda Track Foundation in 2003, the Foundation prepared a proposal for the development of a Strategic Plan for Tourism for the Kokoda Track.

The development of a sustainable tourism industry based on eco-trekking along the Kokoda Track has been identified as a high priority for the KTF, as it will provide the primary source of income to support the planned socio-economic initiatives for villagers along the track.

The intention is to engage and empower the host communities, enabling them to pursue the goals they have set themselves in the five year development plans drafted during the workshops held at Port Moresby, Efogi and Kokoda. Self-sufficiency will be gained through revenues generated from trekking fees, accommodation, food production and associated activities.

The plan focuses on the environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects of tourism development and was completed in 2006. CLICK HERE to download a copy of the Foundation's Sustainable Tourism Plan.

We are now working closely with the Australian Government’s Kokoda Initiative, led by the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Kokoda, Sandy Hollway. The Kokoda Initiative team aims to work with the PNG Government to assist in securing World Heritage Listing for the Track and surrounds, to assist in capacity building for services to the local people, to improve the management of the Track and to create and implement a Code of Conduct for trek operators. The teamis working through the Australian Department of the Environment and its PNG counterpart to improve infrastructure and services to the people living in the region and protecting their environment.

The Kokoda Initiative has already succeeded in restructuring the Kokoda Track Authority (including the appointment, for two years, of Australian-sourced Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, who will administer the organisation and mentor their successors). It has begun a series of programs designed to improve health and education facilities, starting with the medical centre at Efogi, which is already in place. The Initiative also aims to follow through on what the Foundation has already started: the creation and implementation of Master Plan for Sustainable Eco-Trekking along the Track.

 

Content © The Kokoda Track Foundation 2009   |   Email : gen.nelson@kokodatrackfoundation.org for more information