BIAS BAKERY

Street boys, that's what they're known as, in little Aitape town. All towns in any province you go to have them. Unproductive, useless, a waste of time, are their other brand names.

Young boys who have been forced out of school because of various factors such as no school fees, family problems, social problems and even attitude problems. Some had never even had the chance of experiencing what it's like to be in school.

Some had to run away because they felt the system was too harsh for them unlike their free-flowing life at home with their peers.

Others who continued with school even to their highest achievement had to change course maybe because they were confused with what the world had install for them, and would they be able to cope with it.

These are the kind of young kids we see every day sitting around in the market palces, outside shops, smoking bruce or an affordable kind of tobacco, like Marcopolo which only costs 20 to 30 toea. Sometimes it could be a thin roll of marijuana, just enough to give a pleasing feeling of ecstasy.

They occupy their days hanging around telling stories, smoking, chewing bettlenut, cracking jokes or just watching people go about their daily life. Working hard hours, sweating for 'bread and butter' is not the norm for these kids. They'd rather leave that worry up to others whom they know as providers (parents and guardians). They're just there to receive from the other end.

To these young youth who are capable of being a great contribution to society, justice does not seem to prevail from the other end.

They see everyday as another challenge, another struggle for fairness and equal distribution of life's benefits. When this does not happen in their best interest, they tend to look at other alternatives, most often criminally orientated. To them it is a way of showing their frustrations.

Although society may brand them in a certain category, there are some who do understand what these young boys are going through and would like to help them in any way they can. And one good-hearted person has done just that.

Being an outspoken, friendly person, it wasn't difficult for this nun to gain the trust of these young boys in sharing with them their troubles and giving them advice.

This joyous person, who is a local nun from the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, was able to take up the task of 'breaking through these brick walls' to bring out the best in these young people.

"Seeing these boys sitting around doing nothing, made me feel sad. It made me feel that I should find some way to help them feel, and know that they can be someone in society too," commented Sr. Francisca Nama, MFIC.

With her energetic, outspoken personality, she was able to bring all these boys togther to start up a baking project that wold help them to raise money for a proper baking facility.

Firstly, there was the counseling sessions that was offered to the boys. They attended every Thursday mornings. Many made pleasing comments about this wonderful intiative and were very thankful towards Sr. Francisca.

The baking project which was a great boost of moral came afterwards, when a suggestion was made by Sr. Francisca. Many thought that the youths had gotten some help from the local youth office, however unfortunately that was not the case.

It was through this nun's encouragement and motivation that enabled these young people to have the chance to prove themselves worthwhile.

From their first sales of buns and loaves of bread they made about K53.60, after initially spending only K25.00. After two more sales, the demand for their products started to increase and as expected they made some good amount of money.

"The project was a real boost of moral to the boys and they showed their appreciation by being punctual and always willing to help out where they could," commented Sr. Fran. In the beginning, there was some trouble in finding an oven, but after some hard praying and searching, they eventually were given one that was allocated for use by the Mama Group from Nuku Camp.

A project of this kind involving this particular group of people was the first ever of it's kind and was proving to be very successful.

The boys decided to call their little bakery business, BIAS Bakery. BIAS simply means Brothers In Arms.

The project has now attracted many others who are in similar situations and it has helped them too.

"Mi lukim sampela gutpela senis i kamap long ol dispela mangi, na mi amamas tru," said one young boy's mother, who wished not to be named.

Sr. Francisca also said that the project had received many approving comments from the community and urged them too, to help these youths get involved in other community based projects.

"I thank everyone who had supported this group of boys in their project in whatever way. And to all those young boys, just remember that being called a street boy doesn't mean it's the end of the world.