Youth Achievement the Focus of Youth Competition Awards Day

Contacts:
In PNG:
Oala Oala-Rarua ,  World Bank
Phone: 321 7111 or 683 3680

Elisabeth Mealey, World Bank

Phone: 321 7111 or 683 3680
emealey@worldbank.org

Port Moresby, May 3, 2006 -- Six young achievers, including Commonwealth Games silver medalist Dika Toua, will tell the stories of their challenges and successes at the Tingim Yut Kompetisen Awards Day to be held at the Don Bosco Technical High School in Port Moresby on Saturday 6 May.

These success stories will be part of an afternoon of entertainment and information (from 1 pm to 4 pm) building up to the announcement of the winners of the Tingim Yut Kompetisen. Street theatre troupe Watete, the NAU-FM Black Thunder vehicle and the multimedia band, Londea, will also entertain the public throughout the afternoon.

In a session closed to the public earlier in the day, the 24 finalists in the competition will present their creative development ideas to a panel of six eminent Papua New Guineans who will decide on the winners. The finalists – many of whom are traveling to Port Moresby from all around PNG – have been preparing for the Awards Day since February when their project ideas were chosen from over 820 initial submissions.

The competition – an initiative of the World Bank in partnership with Air Niugini, Airlines PNG, Bank South Pacific, Brian Bell, Coral Sea Hotels, Divine Word University, NASFUND, the Pacific Enterprise Development Facility, UNDP and UNICEF – is designed to find and fund good ideas that benefit young people and their communities.

The winning projects will have their development ideas funded for 12 months.

Gates will be open from 12.30 pm and people will be able to inspect the finalists’ proposals and a showcase of youth programs from 20 PNG organizations from 1 pm.

More information:
 List of finalists (8kb pdf)
 PNG Development Marketplace