Three women from the National Capital District, Central and Hela Provinces will attend a prestigious business mentoring program in Washington DC in the United States of America following support from ExxonMobil PNG.
The three women, Dianne Kambanei, Executive Director of Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in PNG, Doreka Gari Dai, member of the Boera Women’s Association has a successful sewing project and Janet Mbuda, Deputy Head teacher of Mananda Primary School in Komo will attend the workshop from May 18 to June 12 this year.
The program, run by Plan International USA is known as Global Women in Management (GWIM), funded by ExxonMobil’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative, and is aimed at training and mentoring women from developing nations such as Papua New Guinea.
At the workshop the women will learn coaching styles, how to strengthen communication skills, and how to network effectively so that they can increase the reach and impact of their work to strengthen women’s economic activities within their communities.
The women expressed similar sentiments.
“My commitment is to ensure my staff and members in my organisation are well equipped with the information and skills that I gain from this training,” said Dianne Kambanei.
“The workshop will give us the opportunity to exchange ideas, skills, experiences, knowledge and success stories with other women leaders to enable us to make a positive difference at home in our communities,” said Doreka Gari Dai.
Janet Mbuda said she was looking forward to bringing what she had learned back to her community and to provide assistance and support to women by encouraging them to participate in projects that they were passionate about.
Andrew Barry, Managing Director of ExxonMobil PNG congratulated the three women on their selection to attend the workshop in Washington D.C.
“I am thrilled and excited at the prospects of what these ladies will achieve after the workshop as they are already making a difference in their local communities.
“Working with both local and international partners ExxonMobil PNG is committed to developing women entrepreneurs and business leaders through skills development training, mentoring and networking programs,” Barry said.
Since 2006, 49 Papua New Guinean women have benefited from the GWIM training held in Indonesia, Washington D.C. and for the first time in PNG in 2014.
The GWIM alumni recently established a secretariat, the Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network, to ensure that women who attended the GWIM program continued to support each other and share ideas, to progressively influence positive change in Papua New Guinea.