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Prior to the disruption of Covid, up to three hundred BGS boys and staff (including Headmaster Michael Urwin) had been warmly welcomed and hosted by Martyrs Memorial School, Papua New Guinea. This had rekindled a connection that stretched back to the 1960s when BGS boys has first begun to visit the school to work on projects benefiting Martyrs School. It is fitting that our Annual House Athletics Carnival fundraising cause partners with ‘The Martyrs Gift’ and is timed so close to Martyrs Day (2 September), thereby maintaining links BGS have with our friends in PNG
Working for Change in Papua New Guinea
The Martyrs Gift honours the memory of the Martyrs of New Guinea by supporting the current work of the Anglican Church of PNG.
Just as the New Guinea Martyrs were a light shining in the darkness, the Anglican Church of PNG brings the light of education, opportunity and hope to its people.
The Martyrs Gift asks you to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea, offering practical support to strengthen the work of the Anglican Church of PNG.
“Life and Hope and a Second Chance” – Adult Literacy student in PNG
In a country where the adult literacy rate is only 63 per cent*, the Church’s Adult Literacy Program gives people a second chance at an education and a more hopeful future (*Devette-Chee & Magury, 2022, p. 1).
“I wanted to try and learn." Jennifer, student.
Jennifer is so eager to make the most of her second chance at an education that she wakes every day at 3am to bake and sell cookies – the money she makes supports her three children and pays for her bus fare to and from the literacy school. She then attends literacy class from 8am – 12 noon, Monday to Thursday.
“I have learned so much in phonics, social inclusion, maths,” says Jennifer, “and I can now read the Bible. I know how to do division, multiplication and subtraction…the knowledge was inside me, even though I didn’t have the chance before. The school gives us life and hope and a second chance.”
As their ability to read and write grows, teachers see changes in the students’ self-esteem, confidence and appearance.
With her newfound skills, Jennifer now has hope for a better future.
Across Papua New Guinea, the Adult Literacy Program has 318 students enrolled in locations across Port Moresby and Popondota Dioceses. The program is supported by ABM AID through the Australian Government’s PNG Church Partnership Program.
“A Responsibility to the Community I Serve”: Agents of Change
The Agents of Change course is equipping a new generation of leaders in Papua New Guinea. An initiative of the Anglican Alliance, the intensive course teaches people practical skills in community development.
Since its inception in 2017, the Agents of Change course has taught 226 students across Papua New Guinea. Many graduates have gone on to start income generating projects such as an ecotourism lodge, planting and producing coffee and cocoa, making soap, and raising pigs and chickens for sale.
Other graduates report that the Agents of Change course helped them get into formal education, employment or a work promotion.
Confident to Work Together as a Team.
In the parish of St Francis in Kavieng, New Ireland Province, the community dreamed of renovating their dilapidated church. But without the skills or knowledge to do so, the project languished.
After participating in the Agents of Change course, however, and armed with new confidence, the parishioners at St Francis put their learning into practice. Working as a team, they sourced sand and timber, hammered and nailed, and renovated the church themselves.
Their church now has a fresh new look, and success begets success: the community now has plans to build a religious brothers’ household, and renovate the priest’s house too.
“The community at St. Francis now see the importance of working together as a team to achieve their plans, through sharing skills and knowledge learnt during the Agents of Change course,” Annsli Kabekabe, the program coordinator
Over the coming year, the Anglican Church of PNG plans to train 10 Agents of Change graduates (2 from each Diocese) to become local Facilitators of the Agents of Change course.
The new facilitators will work alongside Diocesan Bishops to implement an Agents of Change course in each Diocese, and mentor 100 participants to start their own sustainable community development projects.
Funds raised through the Martyrs Gift 2025 will contribute towards these training costs, printing of materials and follow-up mentoring.
Remembering the Past, Serving the Present.
Drawing on the example of the New Guinea Martyrs, the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea continues to bring light to its communities.
Let us join with our brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea through our Martyrs Gift 2025, reaching out a hand of friendship and support to the next generation of servant leaders.