The Grass Skirt Project was founded by mixed Papua New Guinean heritage elite weightlifter Tahina Booth, who lived in Lae till the age of 9, and has represented Australia at the highest levels of sport. The Grass Skirt Project seeks to empower communities and facilitate participation in sport in PNG, by collecting donated sporting equipment in Australia and providing it to PNG sports associations, clubs and grass roots initiatives. In addition, the Grass Skirt Project partners with local sporting organisations to coordinate running training workshops and provide instruction within communities. This initiative focuses on identifying gaps that exist in communities, and bringing the relevant skills and opportunities directly to them to bridge these gaps. We believe that building strong, inclusive resilient communities is one of the keys to empowering women and girls, and will be essential to promote gender equality and inclusivity. Continuing from our success in supporting grass roots sporting communities in PNG, the Grass Skirt Project has commenced a scheme to develop Community Hubs centered on sport, with the pilot project being the Hanuabada Bese Community Hub. This Community Hub will be overseen and supported by a skilled Steering Committee made up local people, and will work in partnership with The Grass Skirt Project to set up and run the Community Hub. This pilot project, and the extended scheme, will be reliant on receiving donated equipment from Grass Skirt Project, but a social enterprise model to create sustainable long-term funding has been developed to support these initiatives. The power of sport as a vehicle for social change has been broadly recognized and has been leveraged by numerous organisations around the world. However, the Grass Skirt Project has an innovative approach in that we have created a circular economy, by re-distributing pre-used sports equipment, and seek to operate as a social enterprise, generating sustainable long term funding for our programs. Gender equality is a cross-cutting theme in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and sport has shown to have both direct and indirect contributions to several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals1. Aside from the abundant physical benefits of participating in sports, it has also been demonstrated to help create inclusive and cohesive communities, by creating social capital2 and fostering collective identity3. To date Grass Skirt Project milestones are: • Procured 13 tonne of sports equipment: Weightlifting, Football, Cricket, Surfing, sports shoes, apparel and women’s sports bras. • $250,000 of new equipment donated • Over 1500 recipients • Delivered first ASCA approved Strength and Conditioning course in Hanuabada village, graduating 10 students. • Signed MOU’s with SAPNG, BFPNG and grassroots organisations. • Partnered with the University of NSW School of Public Health and Yunus Social Business Health Hub How you can help: • Hold a fundraising event • Financial support • Become an ambassador and collect equipment