Basketballers give back to the championship host province     

Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea took an initiative to do cleanathon in Goroka Town as part of their community engagement.

All participating teams and officials in the 2024 All-Stars Championship including BFPNG administrators did cleanup around the provincial capital of Eastern Highlands on Sunday.  

It was a bright sunny day in Goroka as basketball players and officials assembled at peace park for the start of the cleanathon.

Looking all set for the finals, the sport athletes took time out for this Community engagement activity with smiles.

PNG Basketball Federation president David Peter said the cleanathon was one of the vital aspects to use basketball to reach out to communities.

"We want to engage with communities through basketball," Peter told NBC Online.

"Basketball is a platform that we want to use to reach out too many unreached people around the country, especially the youth and our communities out there in the rural areas.

"We want to tell them that basketball can make a change in your life and that's the connection we want to build with everyone across the country.”

The teams came out in their respective uniforms, carrying plastic bags to collect rubbish around part of the town area with the cleanathon ending at YC Hall, where the championship has been staged.

Peter said this initiative was in support of Goroka District Development Authority's agenda to keep the town clean.

He hopes this community engagement would spread a positive message across the town.

"The message is very simple. In basketball we not just develop in players but we develop in other citizens," Peter said of the initiative.

"Young people to be responsible and to be able to be leaders in their communities and the sort of things we wanted to do in our cleanathon in Goroka and especially to also to support the good efforts of the Eastern Highlands Provincial Government and Goroka Town Authority in keeping the town clean and making this town beautiful."

Community engagement is one of the goals for the Papua New Guinea Basketball Federation's new strategic plan.

Peter said engaging in places where there are trouble fights and disharmony in the community, BFPNG will use this initiative to drive peace.