ELC-PNG's selections for scholarships smells fishy

THIS is an open letter to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELC-PNG) about the criteria they use to select Lutheran Church members to pursue studies overseas or within Papua New Guinea. It is evident that the number of scholarships offered is prejudiced and a lot of these scholarships are offered to members of the church in the Momase, Islands, and Southern regions where in particular Morobe Province tops the list. The ELC-PNG members in the Highlands region have rarely gotten any scholarships from the church eventhough they’ve gone through the right application procedures.

Frequently, for a bunch of us from the highlands region who had applied through the process hate to get the notice, “ Your application is pending.” We would appreciate if the scholarship committee simply say, “Your application has been substituted by an application from a Morobean.” We want scholarships to be literally distributed to all regions so that each member (s) of the church can feel that they are part of the church. It is sickening to see leaders of the church using the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and ELC-PNG’s overseas based churches’ funds to amuse their personal agendas. The scholarship committee’s shortsightedness has led to so many old folks pursuing studies and we wonder when the young generation of the church get their chance to make the church grow through these financial help from churches overseas. .

We urge Zau Rapa to represent the members from the highlands region and not to take sides with the Morobeans. Is ELC-PNG a business organization for the Morobeans? What criteria does Mr. Wilson Waesa (Staff Development Officer) and his team use to grant these scholarships? We would appreciate if Mr. Waesa or anyone from the church office in Ampo, Lae provide the number or names of those from the Highlands region have gotten the scholarships for the last ten or so years.

Kurgi Norammat,

Mount Hagen