Bowali Primary School in Lae, Morobe, benefits from CPL Foundation Inc. and Swire Shipping Partnership.

Lae, Morobe Province – Monday, 8 September 2025

CPL Foundation Inc., in partnership with Swire Shipping Pte. Ltd., officially handed over close to 1000 pieces of used school furniture sourced from Anglican schools in Australia to Bowali Primary School in Lae, Morobe Province.

The donation included a variety of furniture items such as desks, chairs, tables, filing cabinets, and shelves — with student desks and chairs specifically intended for classroom use. During the initial planning phase, the furniture was allocated for nine classrooms: Prep, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3.

Thanks to the generous quantity of items received, the school will now be able to furnish an additional 19 classrooms, covering Grades 4 to 8 as well as the library. Over 1,500 students and 40 teachers will benefit from this one donation.

This contribution aims to provide a better learning environment for hundreds of young students in PNG’s second-largest city and major trading port.

This marks the second school furniture donation under the CPL Foundation–Swire Shipping partnership. The first was delivered in 2024 to a school in Bougainville. Bowali Primary was chosen after a thorough scoping process of schools on the outskirts of Lae, as it met all the necessary criteria.

Shared Contributions

• CPL Foundation Inc. led the scoping process, secured duty exemptions, covered domestic logistics costs, and coordinated the delivery of the furniture from Lae port to the school.
• Swire Shipping Pte. Ltd. worked closely with the Anglican Schools Collective and Catholic Schools in Australia to source the furniture and covered all international packing and shipping costs from Sydney to Lae with the help of Vanguard Logistics.

The initiative will also be supported by volunteers from Hardware Haus Limited Distribution Centre and City Pharmacy Lae, who will assist in moving and installing the furniture at the school on Saturday, 6 September. Representatives from CPL Foundation, Swire Shipping, Hardware Haus Limited, and City Pharmacy will attend the formal handover on Monday, 8 September.

“At CPL Foundation, we strive to create meaningful change by supporting communities in health, education, and sustainable development. This donation reflects our commitment to giving children the resources they need to learn and thrive. By working with trusted partners like Swire Shipping, we are helping build brighter futures for young Papua New Guineans.” – Deborah Alois, Manager, CPL Foundation Inc.

“Swire Shipping is committed to giving back to the communities in which we operate, and promoting long-term, sustainable development in the region. We started the Pacific School Furniture Programme in October 2022, recognising that we can do our part to empower students and educators to thrive and thereby encourage learning, by providing schools in need with resources to create a more conducive learning environment. With the support of likeminded partners such as CPL Foundation in PNG, as well as Anglican Schools Collective and Catholic Schools and Vanguard Logistics in Australia, we have been able to support a number of schools in PNG thus far and are delighted to see that Bowali Primary in Lae will now benefit from the same. We look forward to working closely with CPL Foundation and our partners in Australia and around the Pacific Islands to see this initiative come to life and the younger generation thrive,” said Isabel Maguire, Swire Shipping’s Country Manager for PNG.