By Lisa Rogers
Yippee here we go again, another roll out of the door knocking of stage one of the Pawa Atunmankunytjaku Program in and around the Pukatja region this time.
On this trip, Lucas stepped up into the acting Trainer/Mentor position while we recruited a new Trainer/Mentor. We are now very happy to have Jenny Turner on the team. We will hear more from Jenny in 2022!
Lisa and Lucas commenced work in Pukatja with the team: Philip, Aaron, Janet and Kieren. It was great to see some of the Energy Education Workers who had completed their training in April 2021 had not forgotten any of their training!
Throughout the next few days, we had plenty of laughs and jokes amongst ourselves while we were working together to educate the residents about paying for power.
The residents in Pukatja and surrounding homelands were keen to hear about the upcoming changes which will take effect from July 2022. They were very grateful for the one-on-one talks that were provided to each household by the local team. After the visit each household was given a free pannikin mug for their time.
Kenmore Park was a delight to visit and both Lucas and Lisa enjoyed their visit to the orchard. The orchard was a mass of lemons, oranges and mandarins which they both love to eat. Next time you visit Pukatja please stop into the Pukatja Roadhouse to purchase the locally made jams from Kenmore Park – Yum Yum!
Lucas and Lisa are both hoping for the next lot of visits and training to coincide with the stone fruit season so they can revisit the Kenmore Park orchard. They can both dream on!
Due to the large number of houses and homelands in Pukatja, we worked much longer hours than previous visits. The workers stepped up and were happy to work longer days to ensure all houses were visited. As you can see from the photo with Lisa and Phillip with the moon in the background, the photo was taken after dropping the Kenmore Park workers home and then returning to Turkey Bore and Umuwa.
During the 4 days of work the team completed 61 house visits and surveys. Without the support and local expertise of the EEWs, this would not have been possible.
We are very grateful for all EEW’s that have been employed with us this year. We look forward to their continued support as we work together to assist communities in APY Lands, Oak Valley and Yalata in preparation for the introduction of paid power.
Kieren
Aaron
Janet
Phillip and Lisa
