Mum-of-five Finnia sews and sells for her family

By JAMES GUMUNO
FINNIA Manusah, 30, is running a small business to support her two sons and three daughters.
When her husband left the family a few years ago, Finnia thought that she would never be able to look after their five children. What compounded her problem was that she had never been to school and was thus illiterate.
She had very little chance of finding a well-paid job.
Finnia is from the remote village of Ambulua in Jimi district, Jiwaka near the border shared with Madang and Chimbu.
Her husband is from the Jika tribe living at Kalakai village near Mt Hagen city in Western Highlands.
She is one of the hard working mothers struggling every day to put food on the table for their families.
Her eldest son is a carpenter. Second eldest is a daughter who is into her final year at Ogulben Technical Vocational Education Training. Third eldest is another daughter in Grade 10 at Ogulben. Fourth eldest is a son in Grade

“ I thank God for giving me the skill and knowledge to use to support my family.”

Seven at Kolupa Primary School. Youngest is a daughter yet to start school.
Finnia used to watch her aunt sew clothes. She became interested and slowly practiced what she had seen. It could be an opportunity for her to earn a living from selling what she sew.
She decided to sew car seat covers. She learnt about making the correct measurements. It does not require a degree to do that.

With the knowledge she gained from her aunt, she began sewing seat covers for vehicles and sells them at the Kalakai roadside.
She knows that car and truck owners want their vehicles to look neat and beautiful, decorated with colourful seat covers.
She buys blankets, cuts them up then stitches them together into seat covers.
Vehicle owners stop at her impromptu roadside market to buy what she sells. She feels good to see that people love her sewing. It motivates her to sew more.
She caters for all types and sizes of vehicles.
Her only worry now is that before the four-lane road was constructed, her small business was doing fine because many people stopped to buy her products.
But now that the road is sealed, vehicles are travelling faster than before and miss her market altogether.
“No space is created on the road side for vehicles to park like in the past and buy my product.”
On good days, she could make up to K1000 because there were a lot of customers.
But now with the good road and other women copying what she is doing, her weekly earnings is decreasing.
“In a week, when customers come around, I now only make between K500 to K800.”
She sets prices on the model of the vehicles. Seat covers for five-door cars are K350, Ten-seaters vehicles cost K450, 15-seater buses K450, and 25-seater buses K550.
She budgets K150 every week for food, lunch money for her children going to school, bus fares, cloths, and school fees.
Finnia maybe illiterate but she is earning more than what some educated people receive, say, a fortnight.
She puts it down to hard work, sacrifice and perseverance.
And above, she thanks God for helping her.
“I thank God for giving me the skill and knowledge to use to support my family. We are blessed in different ways.”