Australian by Degree, Andrew Stone, Papua New Guinea (32 secs)
Channel: Australia Global Alumni
Date: 03/02/2017

ANDREW STONE – Helping PNG’s toughest kids to achieve their potential 

Update: Sadly, Andrew passed away in July 2020, our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Andrew Stone’s dream of becoming a famous Papua New Guinean rugby league player was lost when injury forced him to retire in his early 20s. Still desperately wanting to be involved; now he is using his sporting skills to help kids with the same rough background he had to reach their full potential and even give back.

Today, Andrew is a Game Development Officer with the Australian National Rugby League (NRL).  He grew up in one of Port Moresby’s toughest neighbourhood—Tokorara. “I saw boys coming in stolen cars … people shooting … my neighbours’ dying … I grew up seeing those things,” he recalls. 

As part of the Australian-Government funded program, League Bilong Life, Andrew and his colleagues get kids excited about going to school and learning. 

Through a series of sessions run across scores of schools in PNG, they use fun games and books featuring rugby league personalities to improve kids’ life skills alongside their reading abilities. Andrew says it really works to get kids back into school: “Before you won’t see 15 of them, now 25 are in the classroom.”

What made the difference for Andrew and his colleagues was to learn the model directly from an Australian NRL development officer in Australia by taking part in an Australia Awards Fellowship. An experience that broadened his mind and gave him greater confidence.

Having started a positive change using rugby in his own community, Andrew is now reaching out further. “I am targeting the rough ones, those who can’t work, those who are lost, I am opening the door for them and saying, this is the way, this is the way.” 

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