Project 8520

Background
The delta area of Gulf Province in Papua New Guinea is an area with a variety of local languages which are used strongly by all generations. Most of these people have almost no access to God’s Word in a language that they can really understand. It is an area with low literacy rates, little infrastructure and few training opportunities.

Phase one: Training Centre
In 2020, Hanna Schulz, the Bible translation advisor to the Kope people, was able through the generous support of donors, to build and open the Orioi’io Madei (Living Word) Training Centre in her village, Ubuo. This building has already been a blessing to the Kope translation team, as they completed Luke, and started work on Acts and Genesis using this work space. In late 2021 the classroom hosted 62 literacy teachers for two weeks of Vernacular Creative Phonics training, as well as hosting a two week workshop on Christian Marriage and Family Life. Further literacy and Scripture Use workshops are already being planned.

From September 2022 the classroom will be used to support a project that is responding to the requests of neighbouring language communities for Bible translation, through a multi-language project teaching Oral Bible Storytelling (OBS). OBS trains people to internalise Bible stories so that they can clearly, accurately and naturally retell them in their own language.

Phase two: Dormitory
While workshops in translation, literacy and Scripture Use are exciting, the challenge is accommodation. While the community has been able to host participants for the occasional workshop, the increasing number of workshops makes for an immediate need for a dormitory to be built. Without a dorm, the accommodation falls to the families in the village. Hanna says that there are approximately 60 homes but most of them already house 6-10 people. We are planning to build the dorm in January 2023, but need the funds well before then, as the logistics of building in a remote area with limited infrastructure mean that materials need to be purchased well in advance. The challenging context also makes it expensive. Please prayerfully consider supporting this vital second phase of the project so that the Training Centre can be a blessing to many people from neighbouring areas.

Funds for this project are being raised in collaboration with SIL USA’s GRO initiative. The combined target is represented on this website, and the barometer indicating progress towards the target represents the combined donations received by both GRO and Wycliffe Australia