Morobe women pledge to unite, be active

Lae News, Normal
Source:

The National,Wednesday18 January 2012

By GABRIEL LAHOC
THE Morobe provincial council of women yesterday pledged to improve networking and be more active in the community.
It began its three-day annual general meeting and witnessed the ground-breaking ceremony for its new council centre to be built at Malahang, Lae.
The meeting is being held at the PNG Apostolic church at Omili.
Council members from the 33 LLGs in the nine districts attended.
Members were urged to stop “politicking and working in isolation”.
They were told to improve on networking and cooperation and should encourage the support of their husbands in their activities.
Morobe provincial council of women president Aluwi Michael is chairing the meeting attended by representatives from the national council of women and  Labuta LLG president Jack Kahu.
Kahu said the centre came under the K200,000 funding from the Morobe provincial government.
The Evangelical Lutheran church mothers also benefited from another K100,000 funding.
Founding members of the Morobe council of women, three grandmothers, recalled the challenges they faced in their fight to be recognised by the provincial and national governments.
Mactuawe Stafford, Sabi Casper and Waima Ilau said women always had a special place and called on women to be active in community development.
Fiona Gesa, the provincial administration executive officer, said there had been poor networking by women’s group from the LLGs at the provincial and national level.
She challenged them to wisely use and account for every government funding so as to encourage more funding.
Representing the national council of women, Kemi Singut said women should be proud of their achievements.
She pointed out that the council had promoted the 22 reserved women seats.
Acting provincial programme advisor for community development Kiun Kimbing urged women to align their objectives and programmes with Christian principles.