My name is Piyak, born and raised in my village of Kibuli. Though most of the children in the village only get the opportunity to receive primary education within our local village school, I was one of the lucky, who went in to the city to pursue studies further, which enabled me to graduate as a teacher. Further education has now allowed me to become a Lecturer at a leading Teacher training college in East New Britain Island.
While living in ENB, I have been actively looking for opportunities to help my village in the Western Province, with sustainable development ideas. This includes upliftment of education for children, guidance in applying knowledge derived from education in to sustainable and environmentally friendly living.
We discovered eco-tourism as a great opportunity to introduce our way of life to visitors, while earning an additional income that reaches wider village community. The Information Technology Adviser to our Teacher training college, provided by the New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) organisation, offered to develop a web presence for us under the ecopng.com domain. Our college has lecturers from many distant provinces of PNG, hence we were able to offer eco village concept to many parts of the country through this project.
While national tourism development strategies are still at infancy, our project is aiming to reach the outside world, through web technologies, thus enabling the travellers to discover the country through an eco-friendly and adventurous manner.