ADRA News-Summer15.qxp_Layout 1 6/11/2015 8:33 am Page 1
ADRA NEWS
Summer 2015
Transformative Hope August sits on the round wooden stool beside her mud brick house. Her four children are running around playing games nearby. She looks down at the bare earth ground, before looking up confidently. “I have my dreams for my children and what I want them to become in the future,” she smiles. “I want them to become teachers, nurses and leaders.”
August’s story mirrors that of so many women in PNG. The average Papua New Guinean only gets about four years of schooling and earns an annual income of approximately $2,400.1
August, now a mother of four, grew up in a poor village in East New Britain province in Papua New Guinea and only completed part of primary school. She did learn to read, but never completed her education.
Amnesty International found that women in PNG hold “a very low status in society, placing them at a very high risk of abuse” and that violence against women is widespread. 1
United Nations Human Development Index. 2 2011 PNG Country Gender Assessment.
ADVENTIST DEVELOPMENT AND RELIEF AGENCY AUSTRALIA
www.adra.org.au
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Gender inequality and unacceptable levels of violence also present significant barriers to the nation’s development. Men are almost twice as likely as women to hold a paid job, and men earn twice as much.2