Think of Darwin, Hobart and Cairns. If you add every man, woman and child in these cities together you’ll reach around 500,000 - the number of kids in PNG who are missing out on an education because they have either no school or no teacher!

This week the Foundation took a major step towards addressing this sad situation. After three years of planning, we gave the green light to our most ambitious project, Kokoda College, the first teaching college to be built in a rural region in PNG.

Our builder, Tereno Pty Ltd of Ulladulla on the NSW south coast, has started pre-fabricating the initial seven core college buildings. They’ll be packed in seven containers - like giant Ikea flatpacks – and delivered to the college site at Kou Kou village, a 10 minute walk from Kokoda plateau.

Our teams of volunteers will construct the buildings on site, starting in October. We plan to have the college open for its first intake of students for the first semester of 2014.

The college will initially have a school of teaching (offering courses for elementary and primary school teachers) and a school of health (for training Community Health Workers – the PNG equivalent of bush GPs).

Kokoda College will be a game changer: it will be able to provide all the needed teachers and Community Health Workers in the Kokoda catchment region within the first three years of operation.

We’ve created a special website, www.kokodacollege.org, where you can check out all details of the College, including plans for the campus and buildings and how to donate to help build and run the college and to join our volunteer teams to help build it.

If you can support us in any way to help develop Kokoda College and change the lives of the descendants of the beloved Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, please contact us online or in person.