Aileen Sagolo – Papua New Guinea

Aileen lives in the post-conflict province of Bougainville. She found it unacceptable that women in her community were dying of HIV/AIDS and decided to do something about it. She brought together four friends, and they committed to learning about the virus, getting tested together and supporting each other regardless of the result. Once they did this, these five women, gathered their own groups of five, and the message started to spread. Spark* is providing branding and strategic support to help Aileen take her project  ‘The Network of 5’ right across Bougainville and Papua New Guinea.

Henson Dima - Papua New Guinea

Henson Dima knows intimately the challenges of the rural communities that he grew up in. He finds it unacceptable that people continue to battle against basic issues of health and sanitation and through his project Koneraku Healthy Villages is doing something about it. Through ensuring access to safe drinking water for all in the village, and building a habit of shelving for food in all homes he hopes to dramatically reduce illness and death in his community. Over the next twelve months he will be measuring the impact of the project carefully, and will then prepare to take this simple approach to many other villages throughout the country.

Fiona Selve - Papua New Guinea

Fiona is tired of watching the health of her people deteriorate as their crops fail, and they are forced into urban areas. Through the Mama’s Food Basket project she is working alongside the women to build house gardens, supplementing family diets with fresh vegetables. Over the next year Fiona will work in one community on the north coast of Papua New Guinea before scaling this project to other communities throughout Manus Province.

John Taka – Papua New Guinea

John was the first Spark* Changemaker to receive funding from the Changemaker Fund. John, an accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers, finds it unacceptable that 80% of the children in his home community are unable to afford the fees to attend school. His project Seeds of Hope is committed to building a community sweet potato business which will provide funding for every child in the village to attend school. Once this model is proven, John is excited to scale the project across the highlands of Papua New Guinea.