PNG Winners set for Grand Final Experience
Tags
Adventure, Australia, PNG, Public Relations Campaign, Road Safety is not a game, Rugby League
Simply click and drag your
cursor over a passage of
text from the article below
to tweet or share.
Last Thursday, the fate of 15 Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) drivers from Papua New Guinea changed forever when they were selected from a national draw to tour Sydney for 4 days culminating in tickets to the NRL Grand Final. It is no wildly flamboyant call to say this, not a hint of an exaggeration here. For you need to understand that the only way you can compare the significance of such a trip to these drivers is not by imagining your dream holiday on earth, but more likely the prospect of you buying a ticket to the moon.
That is taking into account you are even moderately travelled, as in you have driven interstate some time in your life. That’s what makes being involved so special.
Let me backtrack a little – UMM is the public relations specialist for the first ever road safety campaign in Papua new Guinea. It is fair to say it is a necessary first. Drink driving, speeding and cramming too many passengers on PMV’s (the most common mode of citizen transport – think mini-bus) until bodies are bulging out of the sliding door while in motion, are still undesirably frequent practices. This link gives a good idea of the campaign and what we are trying to achieve.
And this link also gives an idea of what these lucky drivers are in for, based on last year’s first winning driver group’s Australia Tour.
Most drivers had never been out of their tiny, utterly remote village, much less to the PNG capital of Port Moresby. Been on a plane? Nope, never. Out of the country? Perish the thought.
There were some heartwarming, sometimes hilarious stories from last year on what the tour meant to certain winners – one driver would not leave his house for 4 weeks at all, for fear of jeopardising his spot. There are many more. For these proud drivers who followed the road rules as our competition required, this is your trip of a lifetime on steroids.
Get ready fellas, we will see you here soon.
Written by Glen Scott.
