strongim meri bisnis
"When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.”
Melinda Gates
The lack of reliable light limits people in undertaking daily activities such as business, reading, schoolwork, and household chores. It also increases safety and security risks for families as darkness provides an easy cover for crime during the night. Solar lighting and energy technology presents a significant opportunity to provide clean, sustainable and durable lighting solutions to off-grid communities in PNG.
Phase 1 of our Strongim Meri Bisnis project worked with eight Women’s Groups established across three provinces in Papua New Guinea: New Ireland Province, Oro Province, and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Each women’s group is provided with a start-up capital investment and a training programme and KTF provides ongoing support and mentoring to the women.
Our training program focuses on small business skills, including basic bookkeeping and accounting, marketing and sales, and reinvesting profits back into the business. We also provide important literacy training and training in the ongoing maintenance of the solar products that the women are selling.
Phase 2 of the project saw a new product introduced. Women’s Groups will produce and sell female hygiene kits - called “Pawa Packs” - at an affordable and accessible price, earning an income for improved livelihoods, and creating pathways to education, health and improved wellbeing for women in the rural communities. Women’s Groups in Central and Morobe provinces have undertaken their training and commenced production and sale of Pawa Packs in their local area.
During the global pandemic in 2020, the Women’s Groups embraced another opportunity to adapt their businesses to help their local communities fight the risk of COVID-19 spread in their local communities by producing another new product - environmentally-friendly fabric face masks.
KTF assisted with procurement of supplies when local supply chains were disrupted, design of face masks to suit the local market, including testing and adaptations required to reflect feedback on local preferences, design and delivery of training materials for new product production and identification of possible distribution pathways, including local government, schools, etc. This business pivot enabled thousands of face masks to be distributed across PNG in areas where they may not have otherwise been sourced.
The Women’s Groups continue to grow and evolve their businesses with ongoing support and mentoring from KTF. Their success benefits the women involved, their families and their entire communities.
For an independent evaluation of the Strongim Meri Bisnis project, click here and KTF’s response for continuous project improvement, click here.
Strongim Meri Bisnis is generously supported by the Web of Hope Foundation.
