St Joseph's College

From 1988 to 1998, Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) was engulfed in conflict with over 10,000 people losing their lives and a third of the island’s population, 60,000 people, living in bush camps for the internally displaced. It began with protests against mining in the country, a key economic asset to the PNG Government, which soon spiraled into a set of interweaving conflicts. National infrastructure, and essential health and education services were burnt to the ground. The conflict created what is known as the ‘crisis generation’: those who fought as children in the conflict, and those who were ‘too young’ to fight but grew up in the period of instability.

The Marist Brothers established St Joseph’s College in the village of Rigu in 1949. During the conflict, the school was burnt to the ground along with most buildings in the area. Many Marist Brothers stayed in Bougainville during the first years of the conflict but were eventually forced to flee for their lives. The Marist Brothers returned towards the end of the conflict and in 1999 established a new St Joseph’s College in the village of Mabiri in Wakuani LLG, Central Bougainville. The new school was purposely developed to educate ex-combatants and other young men of the crisis generation.

Students come to St Joseph’s from across the island with many walking one to two hours every morning and afternoon to attend. During the rainy season, students are often sent home early because of the risk of flooding rivers blocking their return home. The long hours spent walking to and from school hinders learning and as such, boarding options are offered for students in the higher grades.

Today the school offers coeducational opportunities for 636 children and young people from kindergarten to vocational training courses for young adults. This project seeks to renovate and expand the current school site to support more students and facilitate quality learning.

The school aims to improve secondary education opportunities in Bougainville through renovating and expanding current facilities.

The first phase of this expansion is the construction of a two-storey building that has two classrooms on the ground floor, with a capacity of 40 students each, and two dormitories on the top floor for a total of 20 students. This will enable the school to expand to an upper secondary school and provide grades 11 and 12 for students living nearby and 20 boarders. Further infrastructure such as staff houses will also be developed by the school.