Photo: Apo Meri bilum weavers from Eastern Highlands Province in their villages from four differences clans.
As part of showcasing business opportunities in Papua New Guinea and what local business has to offer , two local woman entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to present their Small to Medium Enterprise and they included "Apo Meri" and "Devine Management Services" at the European- PNG Business, Trade, and Investment Conference from the 11-12 of October.
Apo Meri is a community development initiative and business through selling of hand woven bilum or otherwise referred simply as the traditional style fashion made handbags for woman and woven baskets .
Present at the conference to give the presentation was the Managing Director for Apo Meri , Ms Evelyn Mopafi who gave a practical hands down experience on how she had an idea to help women in Eastern Highlands provinces sell their bilum products to earn a living who mostly are based in the village.
So far, she stated that she has 500-woman bilum weavers working for her and has recently made a total of k50, 000 in over 6 Months and mostly uses social media tools such as Facebook and whatsapp to individuals and organizations.
Another initiative by Apo Meri is working with Queenpads PNG by every k10 from the sales of each bilum goes towards the purchase of disposable pads by Queenpads Png to promote healthy menstrual hiegyne for woman.
The other presenter from Devine Management Services Ms. Dorothy Luanda, the founder shared her experience in collaborating with local farmers in East New Britain Province. So far, she has a total of 1000 farmers that she supports in buying their Galip for k15 per kilo .
"Farmers must earn a good living and I try my very best to give them money in a reasonable price to sustain their living".
These were her words in giving her inspirational presentation.
She further elaborated that so far, they do not have a high turnover but are working sustainably.
Their products of galip nut have reached the supermarkets of Papua New Guinea and are an example of downstream agriculture product in PNG.
