Sambuen village sits on the landlocked ridges along the Sarawaget range in the Nabak Local Level Government of the Nawaeb district.
Like any other rural districts in the Morobe province, limited road access remained a major challenge and a main constraint to effective delivery of government services.
The only road link that connects villages here with Lae city ends several kilometers from the village and separated mountains.
To get to Sambuwen village, from the dead end requires a two-day walk on foot on a bush track along this mountain ridges.
The story of the Sambuwen people is no different to any other rural areas in Papua New Guinea.
The life of the people here is a daily struggle.
A health and education system that hasn’t been functioning well over the years has been a major challenge, and high infant and maternal deaths every year remains a major health problem.
“Birth complications is very common in our village. We ferry pregnant women here to the main road so the ambulance can pick them”, a village woman elder said.
The struggles faced by the people here are just the same as few more other villages located along this mountain ridges.
Yesterday marked a significant milestone for the small village community.
The Nawaeb MP, Gisuwat Siniwin and the Morobe governor, Kelly Naru, visited the village to officially cut the ribbon to open a new double classroom.
Although the building may seem insignificant, it represents the resilience of this mountain people.
Using their share from their district funds, the people, bonded together and constructed the classroom themselves.
The new building is first of many to come to replace the old ones, built from bush materials many years ago.
“Teachers and their students, even the parents have to travel for two days to get to the nearest main road to bring back the school materials. It's a hard work living in this place”, said Drial Makin, a primary school teacher.
The people also hope to see a new road build into their area in the coming months. There are also plans to upgrade the village aid post.
Most of the people know that a road or a new aid post won’t be built so soon in their village. But for the meantime, they have no choice, but to spend two days, walking to the main road, beyond those mountains, to get their school and health supplies.
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