A small group of women and men are determined to make a difference by building the capacity of other women in their communities through a training on sewing and garment tailoring.
The ten women and two men from Papa village in the Central Province undertook a weeklong refresher training on sewing machine repair and advance garment tailoring to further diversify their income earning opportunities.
The Partnership with Diari Tailoring Project and Advancing PNG Women Leaders Network (APNG: WLN) is economically empowering women and men with another form of income to improve their livelihoods and the wellbeing of their families.
This group of women and their male counterparts who are certified trainers have facilitated sewing machine repair and garment tailoring for 30 other women in Papa recently.
Training facilitator, Doreka Dai, said without the support of ExxonMobil PNG, this program would not be possible.
“There was a greater need to help equip women and men with skills and knowledge who can then utilise to sustain their families and communities benefit as well.’’
Community Development Support Manager for ExxonMobil PNG, Debbie Maraki, said the company is happy to support initiatives that help equip neighbouring community with the tools they need to improve their livelihoods.
“When women and men are economically empowered, they invest their earnings in education, nutrition and health care of their children and families thus contribute to the development of their communities.’’
In 2018, APNG: WLN conducted a similar training in Boera, Papa, Lealea and Porebada where 32 participants from the train the trainer program conducted a sewing class for 145 women to sew 590 garments. More than K13, 000 was made from the sales of the garments and was shared among the participants.
Through this training, it was identified that need for financial literacy and small business management trainings were needed to help participants to save their money and continue their sales.