Training helps women in province

A GROUP of women say they have benefitted greatly from a coconut downstream processing training in Kokopo, East New Britain.
The women from Korai ward in the Bitapaka local level government and copra farmers attended the training organised by the Kokonas Indastri Koporesen (KIK) officers in February.
Matilda Bilak said they learnt about making oil and soap from coconut.
“After the training, all the mothers turned to do virgin oil and soap, practising what we have gained from the training,
she said. “With the lockdown period, it was not difficult for us to find ways to get money or spend money to buy oil and soap.”
Bilak, the president of the women’s group in Korai ward, added that the Government was also emphasising on washing hands with soap.
“Now we do not go to town to buy soap or cooking oil,” she said.
“We make our own soap to use and we also sell some to earn an income.”
Bitapaka LLG president and ENB deputy governor Cosmas Bauk said he had noted a change in the people who no longer go to town unnecessarily like before.
Instead, they would stay at home and farm the land, making use of their talents and skills to sustain themselves.