Youth programs

So much hope lies with the young people of Papua New Guinea. If given the opportunity, these youth can drive positive change in their communities and the country.

Lydia Dimokari is one young woman in Papua New Guinea who is known on the streets of Gerehu for her love and passion in working with out of school youths.

She is the co-founder of Mission Vibe, an initiative that helps to create safe and inclusive spaces for young people in her community between the ages of 12 – 25 to take part in sessions centered around building of personal self and value.

Lydia was selected to join the worldwide youth leaders at the Economic and Social Council Youth Forum at the United Nations headquarters in New York on behalf of UN PNG and youths in PNG.

In 2015, she was part of the Leadership Development Program with The Voice Inc. at the University of Papua New Guinea. The Voice Inc is a non-government organisation that provides leadership training for young people to be active citizens in their communities.

While completing the program, she started Mission Vibe to share what she had learned with other young people who were not at work or school.  She hosted educational sessions for young people from the backyard of her house and would discuss topics such as the importance of goal setting, finding purpose in life and knowing your worth and value.

The following year she volunteered with the Equal Playing Field project, which ran programs in schools to talk about the importance of safe homes and happy families, with the aim of reducing violence against women and girls.

Mission Vibe has since grown to a place where it works in partnership with numerous youth groups to run sessions in primary schools and Lydia is seen as a role model in her community for her work with young people.

ExxonMobil PNG has supported The Voice Inc’s Centre for Leadership (CfL) since 2014. The Centre is a resource and learning hub that creates an environment that nurtures the dreams and potential of young people to drive change in their communities.

Operations Director of The Voice Inc. Maliwai Sasingian, said “We are extremely grateful for ExxonMobil PNG’s confidence and continuous support of our work and we are excited to continue our partnership with a company that is truly committed to developing PNG’s future generation of leaders.”