Basil Turner

President and founding member​ of Bougainville Besties Inc.

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Basil, his wife Robyn and their young family had an opportunity to live and work in central Bougainville for three years in the late 1960’s. In the last 18 months on Bougainville, Basil was given responsibility for relocating some of the villages at risk from the establishment of the Panguna mine and to help the villagers establish small businesses in conjunction with the developing mining operation. He enjoyed working closely with the villagers. After returning to Australia, Basil and his family watched with dismay at the disastrous events that later unfolded in Bougainville.

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With most of his family suffering from hearing loss from a young age, Basil was acutely aware of the often hidden and 'silent' impact of this disability. Following a career in personal management with Unilever, Citibank, University of New England and the fledging Australian Catholic University, Basil spent a considerable amount of his retirement developing training resources for staff caring for elderly Australians struggling with hearing loss.

In 2019, Basil struck up a friendship with Callan Services - Buka dedicated coordinator Blaise Semoso. Together Basil and Blaise have worked on a number of projects in Bougainville aimed at improving educational outcomes for school children with a hearing loss.  Realising that much greater awareness and funding was desperately needed to support Bougainville’s disadvantaged, Basil and his family established Bougainville Besties Inc. The not-for-profit’s membership has now grown to over fifty members. 

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Blaise Semoso

Co-ordinator of Callan Services, Buka in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville​

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Blaise Semoso, 43 years married to Geraldine Semoso and living with his family in Buka Island, Tsitalato Constituency, North Bougainville.  He is a Teacher by Profession, Graduated with a Diploma in Primary Teaching in 2004 at Our Lady of Sacred Heart Kabaleo Teachers College in East New Britain Province and taught in Bougainville Primary schools for 3 years between 2005 and 2007. From 2008 to 2010, he worked as a Provincial Deafness Education officer funded by Light for the World, Austria in Wewak Special Education Resource Centre, Callan Services while working he completed his 3 years Bachelor in Special Education with Divine Word University, PNG.  Blaise identified 70 school age children living with hearing impairment in East Sepik Province from weekly outreach programs and integrated these children into conventional schools to access education and other opportunities to reach their full potential.

Blaise was the Program Coordinator for Special Education Resource Centre Callan Buka from 2015 to 2024.  He is a visionary who understands how efficient and sustainable programs will be made available in all districts in Bougainville, through promoting inclusion networking with existing service providers. Most of the Inclusive Education and Community Base Rehabilitation Program is now slowly established amongst some of the 13 Districts across the entire region of Bougainville. 

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For the last two years stipulated under Universal Values, Principle Two: LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND (LNOB) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, two new resource Centres coordinating programs at various districts now are established this year, Central Bougainville and South Bougainville.  Under these two main programs, Inclusive Education and Community Base Rehabilitation, there are a number of important activities that we operate which address individual and different types of disabilities separately. This ensures proper assessments, referrals, trainings and applying correct assistive devices and rehabilitation intervention strategies.  We need continuous support from donors and partners to help disadvantaged, marginalised communities in Bougainville, especially where we do not have adequate teaching and training materials where our specialization area is concerned.​​​​