A total of 34 ATprojects employees have attended a two days intensive course on Personal Finance Management at the National Appropriate Technology Centre last month.

The course was to help and teach the staff on how to save and manage their income in order to meet their daily needs and to achieve their dreams in life.

The course was facilitated by Hariah Frank, the head of the Accounts section and assisted by two accounts officers, Wolder Wifa and Yolanda Namo. The course was conducted in TokPisin targeting the TokPisin speakers.

The English version of the course was conducted last year targeting English speakers and was facilitated by ATprojects Co-Director, Steve Layton.

Jack Heruno (right) receiving present from Hariah Frank on behalf of the group that ended the two days intensive course.

ATprojects Co-Director Steve Layton said this was part of Capacity Building for its employees to help them to be financially independent.

Most employees are locals from the Nagamiza area and the course aimed at teaching them to improve their living standards and to achieve their long term plans.

The course helped them to identify areas where they have been spending a lot of their income on.

Group photo taken after the two days course on Personal Finance.

Everyone who attended the workshop were very pleased and thanked the local NGO for such an opportunity.

Silas Simba, one of the ATprojects staff said the course will help him and his family to work towards archiving his dream.

He said that he should have attended the course a long time ago, adding that if he had done so he would have been half way through to achieving his dream.

He said although he had lived half of his life already, he will try his very best to practice what he has learnt.

They group ended the two days intensive course with a small barbecue.

The Personal Finance course is one of ATprojects program that mostly targets low and average income earners to be financially independent to meet their daily needs and to achieve their dreams regardless of how much they earn.

West Goroka Primary based in the township of Goroka is the proud recipient of two cartoons of library books being donated by the ATprojects. The local NGO based in the Eastern Highlands Province as part of its community development and service delivery program, has donated library books to one of the growing schools in Goroka.

West Goroka Primary School Head Teacher Mr Tony Koyanko was very thankful for the generous support of ATprojects. He said for years the school has no library and last year the school and its administration has renovated a classroom and turned it into a library.

He added that he had written letters seeking assistance for Library books and has left a copy of the letter in all the Post Office boxes. ATprojects received a copy of the letter and without much anticipation, the local NGO responded immediately in assisting the school with the Library books.

West Goroka Primary School Head Teacher Tony Koyanko (Left) and ATprojects staff Silas Simba standing infront of the two cartoons of books being donated to the school by ATprojects.

ATprojects Co – Director Steve Layton gave the authorization to donate the books to the school. Mr Layton said the books include both fictional and non fictional has been occupying the organization’s library space and added that it was better to give it to the schools and to those who very much needed them to enhance their learning.

ATprojects also has its library located at the National Appropriate Technology Centre at Mt Gavehsuka for its staff to use. Mr Koyanko said books plays an important role in today’s educational institutions as well as homes throughout the country. He said students who read a lot of books have performed academically well.| By ATprojects Media Unit, 20th February 2015