By Lydia & Peter Kailap*

Kaugere is one of the oldest settlements in PNG, having started in the 1960s, and is home to the notorious raskol gang, Koboni. Even other raskol gangs will not tangle with these boys.

These are the boys we live and work with; they are the boys who built our school, teach our children and take care of CUMA – the Chilren’s University of Music and Art, which we established. They have renamed themselves the “Fox Tribe Youth Development Program”.

We must point out that Kaugere is not a geographically isolated community: it is part of Port Moresby, less than 3 km from the centre of town. We can see the town from our school.

Every man, woman and child in this community lives in a state of abject poverty. Home is a makeshift canvas tent or a tin box built in the dust. There are at best just two hours in each day when water is available; and this has to be collected from a broken pipe in the street and carried long distances. There is little electricity and no proper kitchens or bathrooms.

Over 80 percent of school-age children do not attend school because they are unable to pay school fees. Starvation is common. There is no clinic or police presence. This community fends for itself as best it can.

It is estimated that, of a population of some 10,000 in Kaugere, only 300 people are employed. This community has a nationwide reputation of being the breeding ground for the worst criminals – and that is true.

The whole of PNG complains about the raskols and expresses disgust and dismay at their activities and calls them violent and useless.

The whole country is wrong!  These are our loved children. 

They are intelligent, talented, resourceful, resilient, loyal and caring. They are hard-working, helpful and tough. Very few, if any, would be involved in criminal activities if they were not the victims of the most extreme poverty you can imagine. It is not the life they chose and it is not the life they want.

These raskols are the result of an uncaring society that has neglected its poverty stricken families, especially the children.

The AusAID program called Yumi Lukautim Mosbiis implemented under the guidance of AusAID advisor Steve Sims, also known as ‘Showbag’ Sims.

The program aims to reduce law and order problems in Port Moresby by finding an alternative for crime for settlement youth. As such it was the perfect place to go when we were setting up CUMA.

At CUMA we believe that educating settlement children is the answer to reducing the number of raskols on the streets. We have proved that when you take a raskol and provide him with something to eat every day and a purpose in his life, he will gladly leave his life of crime.

During a meeting with Steve Sims in 2007, we were told our plans for CUMA did not fit AusAID's criteria and, while they had “plenty of money”, they could not assist us.

After questioning Steve on the criteria, we were able to ascertain a few answers. We were not impressed.

AusAID could not assist with buildings; there had to be a clear connection between the program and a reduction in raskol activities; it could assist with sporting programs and equipment; it may be able to provide some gardening tools and ‘experts’ to teach the boys how to garden, but only if the gardening equipment was securely locked away in a sturdy building when not in use (but it could not help us with the building).

This essentially negative discussion went on for over an hour and we gave up and left.

It was as if we had to squash our real needs to fit academic criteria; no doubt devised by someone who had never been to a PNG Settlement.

Here’s an example of the Kaugere Community’s contact with Yumi Lukautim Mosbi. Late in 2008 about a dozen of our street boys came to us wearing brand new white and red Lukautim Mosbitee-shirts.

They reported they had volunteered for the program to clean up the streets and reduce crime. We asked them about the deal and they confirmed they would not receive any food or money for their efforts and were expected to apprehend thieves and take them to the police station to be charged. But they did get a new tee-shirt.

That was the end of that. The boys wore their shirts for a few days and went about their normal business.

The program was simplistic. These kids are criminals because they are hungry; not because they are bored. You can spend as much money as you like on sports and run them around from sunup to sundown; at the end of the day they will be hungrier than ever and the need to steal will be greater.

We know that our meagre efforts at CUMA have really made a difference. We have proof that, without a single toea of the $1.2 billion funding, we have removed dozens of raskols from the street and turned them into productive and caring members of their community.

It costs us a meal of rice and tinfish for each of them every day, a lot of love and encouragement, and our personal belief in these kids. Our only help has come from the PNG business community and social clubs; not a single toea from the PNG government or any aid organisation or church group.

The other area where we have experience is the AusAID response to HIV/AIDS in PNG.

The funding for this through the National AIDS Council has become one of the most lucrative scams in PNG history.

While researching funding for a musical drama to generate AIDS awareness, we were advised that we could go to the National AIDS Council and get an immediate grant of K70,000, provided we returned K30,000 to the person as a ‘gift’! We decided to find the funding elsewhere!

PNG desperately needs every cent of AusAID funding, but the money needs it to be spent in an accountable way to fix the problems within PNG communities. That $1.2 billion could make a huge difference if it ever got to the grassroots.

In our assessment, AusAID is trying to fill a bucket that is full of holes. Unless corruption and waste are addressed, the aid will never achieve its objectives. And we have seen from the response from AusAID PNG to questions raised by PNG Attitudethat it is not willing to confront the demon of corruption.

Meanwhile the children of PNG - 40% of the population of 6.6 million are under the age of 15 - continue to suffer and die every day.

They die the way they were born, in an environment of poverty and hopelessness, often as a direct result of violence or starvation. Often, their bodies are left to rot in a mortuary because there is no money to bury them.

www.cuma-png.org