The Yawasoro-Niewanjie road in Wewak, East Sepik Province has seen a facelift after years of negligence.
Thanks to the EU- STREIT PNG programme’s effort through the International Labor Organizations (ILO), this ten to thirteen kilometer stretch of rehabilitated road has brought hopes and opportunity to the people living along that area.
In the Niewanjie rural community, life before the road reconstruction used to be tough.
The villagers were struggling to access basic services like schools, market and healthcare due to poor, almost impossible road located within a water logged area.
Farmers like Judith Auta, who owns five cocoa blocks had to neglect her cocoa blocks.
They could barely transport their produce to the market because of the bad road condition.
Judith, who is also a mother endured long, laborious journey just to reach basic services.
“We used to wake up very early at 4 or 5am in the morning just to walk the bush tracks to the main road,” she recalls.
“It was also hard for our children especially the girls, walking through the bush everyday to get to school. It was not safe.”
The refurbishment of the road will now improve the life of over 2,200 residents who once faced these hardships.
The road in its new, durable shape was built to withstand the area’s unfavorable conditions, allowing access to services all year around.
For farmers like Judith, the new road has transformed her livelihood.
“Now that trucks can reach us, I am taking care of my Cocoa blocks again. The price of Cocoa is good and the last time I sold some wet beans for K400 right here at the end of the road,” she says.
25 year-old Maya Samalai, a young man from Niewanjie village also shared the same sentiment saying that with the road, he has been able to sell 80 Kilograms of Cocoa beans to save up for his Grade 12 studies.
“This road gives us hope. It’s helping us to live a better life,” Maya says.
This road project is also said to have created about 12, 000 days of paid work during its construction phase, creating job opportunity and injecting financial input into the local community.
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