Kila Garum, a community leader in the remote village of Drimskai in the Kiunga rural local level government (LLG) of the North Fly District in Western Province, has given up his role as the ward councilor and has instead led villagers in Drimskai in a community development project that aims to build 49 homes to accommodate everyone in his village.
Garum, 50 is also a supervisor to five (5) volunteers under the National Volunteer Services (NVS) who are currently attending a three-week Southern Region Batch 19 volunteers Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) program at the Goldie River Training Depot (GRTD) which started on the 19 th of June and ended on the 9 th of July.
The PSO is basically an induction program that is aimed to equip volunteers with the necessary information that they would need to successfully go about ensuring the completion of their projects with the guidance of NVS supervisors.
“These first 21 homes built were prioritized for the people with disabilities, widows, married and young people in the community,” he said.
“My dream is to see that everyone in the community owns a permanent house with solar lights and a drinking water tank.
“I resigned from occupying the position of Ward councillor in the 2018 LLG election after realizing that the community needs that had been identified were not being prioritized.”
Garum said he resigned after realizing that his efforts to seek assistance from the office of the District and Provincial members had fallen off on deaf ears so he had to take action instead of waiting on the Government.
Since then, he has managed to build 21 out of the 49 proposed houses that were to be built in the ward with the help of the local villagers and later a support funding of K136,000 as the first quarter funding from the District Service Improvement Program Funds (DSIP).
“Helping my community build the 21 houses has given me a sense of accomplishment in serving my purpose as a member of this community,” he said.
Garum has also proposed another project to venture into after the Southern Region PSO, which is a plan for a Land Use Project.
