Alumni Feature - Ferdinand Aimatuk
Written by Ferdinand Aimatuk, introduction by The Voice Inc.
Posted on 28 January 2019
I was just a simple boy from a small village called Tangu in the district of Bogia, Madang Province. I grew up most of the time disconnected from the world, with no proper road linkage nor infrastructure. To get to my place you had to take a 6 hour drive from Madang, most of the journey was off road and dependent on weather. If it rained, there would be little or no way to get to the village as a result of bad road conditions. It would take a tiring relentless effort that endured bogging and that had the physical manpower to continuously push a 50 tonne plus car out of its muddy despair. Most of the time we walked, which was pretty normal although I would not go into the details of time and obstacles but we had to walk if we had no choice. Regardless of the travel or road challenges this was home.
We may not have had the luxury of basic services but I sure knew the importance of education. And although there was the obvious uneven distribution of infrastructure we had the wealth in resources. The resources were the people, their willingness to unite, the land, its fertility, its abundance in hectares, our history and of course our culture.
Coming out from the village for school was a struggle as I held so much sentimental value to this place but I knew that for the better of my people and my village I had to be strong. So I kept my feet grounded and did my best. I successfully made it into UPNG where I achieved my goals in getting into the Bachelor of Economics Program, something that added so much value to my life. The days spent at school were humbling for me and at large, somewhat of a culture shock at times. All in all, I knew I just had to trust the process.
Then one day in 2012 my final year, I read on campus there was a DREAM program hosted by an organisation called The Voice Inc. Not knowing what I would get into, I signed up and realized it was once of the best decisions I have made. I got most of my inspiration from the entire DREAM session especially finding my purpose in life and living my mission statement. I felt confident and felt ready to contribute in many ways to not only the people of Tangu but the people of PNG, regardless of how small my contribution was.
After I graduated from UPNG, I worked for a couple of financial institutions, the longest one being ANZ bank. I learned a lot of things in my work experience especially how to lead other team members. I left the workforce not long after and decided to go back to Tangu and start a project with my people. We started a cocoa farming project and as a result we successfully incorporated the Tangu Development Association Inc. It is a community-based organisation, formed by and for the people of Tangu village to address social and economic issues that prevent or slow down development in the community. Our vision is to create self-reliant rural villages where social and economic development can be achieved through better utilisation of resources such as land and crops, with support from government through basic infrastructure.
We are currently doing community awareness programs in 14 different large villages in six different ward areas, covering over 6,000 people. After the awareness, we are planning to conduct some youth development programs, agriculture training, and financial literacy training and later on move on to SME programs. We just recently ran the DREAM program here at home and it was a blistering success. Participants far and wide from nearby villages came and many had to be turned away, since we reached our maximum capacity.
These experiences has taught me a lot of great lessons in life where I have found my voice. I feel am passionate about seeing PNG develop an economic system that actually translates the wealth gained by our country into the welfare of its citizens. I see PNG developing its own socioeconomic welfare indicators as our system of wealth distribution and welfare is unique and should be captured.
I see PNG becoming truly independent, strong and progressive when it starts to pursue development the PNG Way.
The vision I have for PNG is in line with the fifth National Goal and Directive Principle, and that is for our country to achieve development primarily through the use of Papua New Guinean forms of social, political and economic organization.
We live in the age of globalization. Globalization itself is not a threat to PNG ways; however, it becomes a threat when we start adapting to ideals of universal civilization that presupposes colonial supremacy. Not everything the west does is right or good. Developing does not mean copying the West. "The world economy is dominated by capitalism, a system which ‘does not allow the world’s manifold cultures to achieve modernizations that are adapt to their histories, circumstances and distinctive needs" (John Gray, 1998).
PNG’s biggest challenge is to uphold its identity throughout the development process.
I believe it is our mission to educate our people in realizing and unlocking their potentials and also assist them through the process of creating the better life they dream of.