Nineteen women undertake sewing

NINETEEN women graduated from a sewing training programme conducted by WeCare Foundation for Women and Children at Risk in Vadavada, Port Moresby, last Friday.
A trainee representative, Julie Sam acknowledged the WeCare
Foundation and the sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers and Digicel Foundation for making the training possible.
“The women in Vadavada hardly come together and meet like this,” Sam said.
“This is the first time that such a project was brought into our community that has enabled the women to make use of their time to learn a skill that could help generate income for their families.”
Fellow trainee Marsha Wella said all the participants are housewives.
“On behalf of the women, I thank WeCare Foundation for this opportunity that had opened up our minds and eyes to see that we can also provide for our families and not rely on our husbands all the time,’’ Wella said.
According to a community representative, Vadavada came to be in 2010 and since then, they never had any projects conducted in the community.
WeCare Foundation started carrying out awareness in the community last year.
This year, a total of 25 women registered for the training but only 19 completed the training and received certificates.
WeCare’s programme officer for Women Empowerment, Lorna Killie, conducted the training from March 11 to April 18.
Killie said in the first week of training, the women were nervous and hesitant to attend because they were worried about other community members talking about them.
“The training was difficult at first because most of them do not know how to handle a sewing machine,” Killie said.
“I enjoyed teaching these women because by the end of the day, I see the outcome in their sewn products and also that shows their commitment and determination to learn and that gives me great satisfaction.”