KOYA AIBE DREAMS TO SEE MORE MARKET OPPORUNITIES FOR HER SAMBERIGI FARMERS DESPITE COVID
The impacts of covid19 were felt by people from all walks of life, from the far end coastal shores of the Rossell Islands in the Milne Bay province to the Aua Islands of Manus, the borders of Western and West Sepik Provinces and hinter lands of Papua New Guinea, the ripple effect somewhat caused a chain reaction and that continues to affect livelihoods of ordinary Papua New Guineans.
While its trail of impacts left footprints all over the place with some
seriously affected by losing a loved one, others felt a pint and continues to
do so. People are learning each day, and such is the case for Samberigi Polopa
Women’s Voice. An Association
established in 2006 by -the women of Samberigi and nominated Koya Sukiapu Aibe
as the Chairlady and Rachel Nake Sisimolu as the treasurer to lead the
association. Both determined women leaders who are currently championing and
empowering their people in the Samberigi area of the Kagua Erave district of
Southern Highlands province.
Koya Sukiapu Aibe is the President of the association that looks after 10 council wards in Samberigi. She is grateful that none of her community members fell ill to covid however, the restrictions and companies laying off workers affected vegetables farmers in her Samberigi area who supply vegetables through the association’s established vegetable market with PNG Mining and Petroleum Hospitality catering services. That is their main source of income.
‘’We used to supply tons of fresh produce to the Oil Search camp in Gobe. Due to the company laying off its workers and covid restrictions, we have
been forced to reduce the volume of supplies to 500kg or less per delivery.
This has significantly affected the lives of our farmers in the 10 council
wards.’’
Samberigi is very remote and lies between Kikori in the Gulf and
Southern Highlands provinces. The only access to this part of Kagua Erave
district is through road. The imposing of restrictions added a lot of fear and
anxiety to communities spread across Samberigi and were not able to access
banking services in Moro, Hagen or trade with their neighbours in Kikori.
‘’We can’t go to Moro although there is a bank there. We have a lot of food and
there is surplus supply but what can we do? Our people are never hungry. The
major problem is accessing market opportunities to sell our produce. I am still
looking around for market opportunities for my farmers. We only have one and
are grateful to PNG Mining and Petroleum Hospitality Services for giving us the
opportunity to provide fresh produce to them, but I would really like to see
few more businesses open doors to us.’’
While people living in Moresby and other centres have access to
information and awareness, for communities in Samberigi, having access to information is an issue and, with so much happening around the country, Koya
adds that, majority of her people tend to believe anything that is said and heard.
‘’The problem right now in Samberigi is awareness. We have heard about
covid through word of mouth. There is no access to radio, or any other
awareness carried out by our authorities. There are no mobile phone coverage so
whatever information people hear, they believe it whether it is true or not.
Despite all that is happening around us we are still making gardens and trying to make ends
meet for our families’’.
Mrs. Aibe believes that this association is a blessing and has done so
much to help its people during times like this. She applauded the work of
Advancing PNG: Women’s Leaders Network for playing a major role in developing and providing
pathways for communities in Samberigi through Samberigi Polopa Women’s Association.
Since its inception in 2006, six to seven years was spent on skills and livelihood
training for its women. In 2014, the association changed its course and went
into agriculture through ExxonMobil funding support managed by CDI Foundation,
then Oil Search Community Affairs provided much needed support with trainings
through Fresh Produce Development Authority and Coffee Industry Corporation.
Things changed a lot for these 10 wards.
‘’Livelihoods and skills development training was and is always top on the
agenda and through this initiative, we have opened a market with Oil Search and
have been supplying them fresh produce since then. We do that every week.’’
‘’Coffee Industry Corporation has also played an integral part in our
development. Our people are well versed with coffee farming now after having
gone through different training opportunities with them.’’
‘’We wanted to make a difference, so instead of relying
on people to help us. We started to help ourselves first. We set up an
association for women in Samberigi having in mind that, this will be seen as a
platform to partner with other organizations and in fact from 2006 till now, a
lot has happened’’.
The association was initially setup for women and
girls and was specifically for community empowerment through the women. But
that has changed overtime.
‘’We have men and boys taking part in different programs
and supporting their women folks. The whole community has taken responsibility
for this association. This is one of the programs in Samberigi apart from the
church run programs that our people actively take part in. The see this
association as the only source of income and development in their in lives’’.
‘’Their lifestyles have changed a lot. I have been
seeing a lot of young people taking ownership and going back to ploughing their
l and. It is encouraging to see youth going into coffee farming or poultry,
among others. This has brought a lot of economic benefits for them.
According to their records from 2014 – 2018 over 100 tons of fresh produce has been sold to
catering companies operating in the mining sites of Southern Highlands
Province. Over 250 thousand kina made and was distributed equally to the 18
villages. An expense of over 300 thousand kina was spent on logistics and
labour cost. This was also invested into their own people.
Koya has big dreams for her people and with the
association, she will keep knocking on doors for few more markets.
‘’I know there is restrictions put in place and will
have to follow the ‘’Niupla Pasin’’ protocol, but we need to work, our people need to
eat. We are recovering and an association, we are strategizing and hoping that
this issue presented to us is an opportunity to branch out and look at other
possible ways to continue improving our lives.’’
The only issues covid brought to the people of
Samberigi as the president explained is the reduced volume of vegetable
supplied the developer, other than that, access to market and transport has
always been a problem.
‘’Our major underlying problem that has always hindered
our work is transportation and Access to Market opportunities. Transportation
cost K800 per hire and that is too much for our farmers.
‘’our association benefits little from the work we do.
All the monies earned from this operation goes back to the communities. And
Since 2006 more than 600 thousand kina has gone back to their pockets.
When sharing her story,
President of the Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network, Ms Ruth Kissam commended
the resilience Koya and her organisation and the many countless women, men and
youth out there in the rural areas continue to endure and provide development
solutions to their communities.
‘‘organisations such as the
Samberigi Polopa Women’s Voice keep rural economies
going where income earning opportunities for the real mass are very slim to
none at all . And I’d
like call to the government of James Marape to make provisions that will
include business agencies such as SPWV in the current SME packages as the
current SME initiative seem to be benefiting Port Moresby business. Port
Moresby is not Papua New Guinea, said Ms Kissam.
For Koya, Rachel and
other community leaders of Samberigi, they saw that all the training and skills
development programs their people have gone through has prepared them for
situation such as this pandemic and despite their challenges, the commuities in
Samberigi are resilient, innovative and adjusting to their lives to the ‘‘ Niupla pasin‘‘.
Some of the women farmers at the cabbage plot.
END!!
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