ABCs of Healing
While living and working in Papua New Guinea for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Michelle Abel met many amazing people, all with stories to tell. Here she shares just one.
I first met Veronica at a community meeting in Tinputz, one of the project areas targeted by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Bougainville, PNG. After the meeting, Veronica approached me. She had applied to work as a trainer with ADRA’s literacy program and wanted to know the status of her application.
It hadn’t reached me, so I interviewed her on the spot. When I asked if she were literate in English, she asked in English if I was literate in Tok Pisin , the language used in ADRA’s literacy program. I confessed I was still learning.
She spent the rest of the interview speaking in Tok Pisin. Veronica got the job as coordinator for the literacy program.
One evening, as I sat in Veronica’s house, she sat down beside me and began telling stories of her life.
There was no moon and no other light but a dim kerosene lamp.
Veronica told me how her brother died during the civil war that had waged in Bougainville for 10 years.
She explained that he had been working in another part of PNG at the time and had simply returned to see his family.
As he and Veronica’s husband were walking to his home village, they were ambushed. He was their target, and they hacked him to pieces with bush knives.
Veronica’s tone was matter-of-fact.
Bougainville is still dealing with the scars of that bitter war, which killed thousands. There are so many terrible stories and I can’t begin to understand the anguish that is carried beneath the smiles that always greeted me.
While Veronica was talking, I looked around. Beside me was the dusty blackboard that she used to conduct her literacy classes. The neat writing from the class held that day has not yet been wiped off the board. Her class was working on their vowels. Veronica had every right to be angry, sad, depressed, but instead she was optimistic. She was keen to help her community recover and faithfully continued to work for the benefit of those around her. She knew they had pain too, but she also realised the possibilities for a brighter future.
Participants in ADRA’s adult literacy training program learn basic reading, writing and numeracy skills. These skills are important in their own right, since they provide opportunities for further education and work. However, in Bougainville, these skills also help ex-combatants and young people gain confidence to speak about and heal from the tragedy they have lived through.
The next day, I attended a literacy graduation program. After the presentation of certificates, a weeping woman came to hug me. She was so thankful that ADRA had trained the volunteer teacher, Veronica, who taught her how to read and write. But I knew it was not me who should be thanked. It was Veronica.
At its conclusion in 2005, ADRA’s literacy program in Bougainville had trained more than 800 volunteer teachers and registered more than 4000 students in classes. The program was funded by the Australian Government and operated under the auspices of ADRA–PNG.
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