Hagen women leader dies

By YVONNE HAIP
PELEPA Daniel Kuli, a women leader in the highlands, died last Friday at the Mt Hagen General Hospital.
Kuli was in her late 50s and had been ill for the past two years.
She made a name for herself by contributing to the tourism and education sectors in the province as well as the Lutheran church.
In the 1980s, her husband, who was a school inspector in Southern Highlands, died in an accident.
She struggled to make ends meet and raise five young children on her own, three of whom made it to university.
Kuli was also a mother-figure to orphans by sponsoring their education.
She ran the Amb Nga Ting Manga Lutheran Guest House in Mt Hagen, built a Christian school using donor funding at her Kolgmul village and was involved in the building of a Lutheran church that has yet to be opened.
Kuli became a self-taught florist and botanist, and often arranged fresh flowers she picked from her gardens for the Highlander Hotel and the Lutheran Guest House.
Her flowers earned her a good income, and she had several contracts including one with PNG Gardener.
She became a leader in her own right over the years through her involvement in Lutheran Church activities as the women’s leader.
A family member, Amos Pora, described her as an “iron lady who committed most of her time in helping women have a voice in the community”.
Pora said she was as an independent woman whose work and commitment touched the lives of many.