Walium women learn floral skills

The National Weekender

By VINCENT KUMURA

On Wednesday, March 14, 13 women from Walium, the district headquarter of Usino-Bundi in Madang experienced something new by participating in their first ever mini floral exhibition organised by the Kumura Foundation.
Though light showers fell and the grey clouds encircled above, the brilliant glows of the brightly assorted flowers sparked the dull air with a raving beauty of and fresh aroma.
As lively music played in the background, cheerful women for the first time in their lives took turns in exhibiting their flowers for the Kumura Foundation team to comment on.
The week before, Monica Noah, the facilitator from Kumura Foundation trained these women (six public servants and seven housewives) 10 different patterns of flower arrangements in preparation for the annual Bundi Culture and Flower Arrangement Show coming up in July at Bundi station.
The show is also an initiative of the Kumura Foundation. Calling themselves the new Walium Women Floral Group, their president Julie Riwo admitted, “I grow a lot of flowers around my house but I just don’t know how to arrange them properly and grade them, but through this training, I can now really add value to my hobby of growing flowers. We will now decorate our homes, churches and offices with great floral arrangements.”
Lynn Kurame, the host of the event who runs a small lodge at Walium with the help of her husband said, “I am very happy that I can host such an event and also take such a training. This is the first time for me a housewife.
“For my sister Veronica Koronga (she and her husband own the Koronga Guest Haus at Walium) and I, we can now put flowers of various patterns at our lodge for our guests.”
While addressing the women at the floral exhibition, the deputy director of Kumura Foundation Danny Kunda commented that “we are conducting such trainings to empower our rural women to help improve their livelihood because you are the backbone of our district, province and country.
“And we hope that through this workshop, you will learn something new to change your perspectives of life, change the way your homes, churches and workplaces look both inside and outside and add value to your life. It is little things like this that make a lot of difference in someone’s life.”
The foundation thanks the Kurames at Walium for allocating their area for the week’s floral arrangement training.

  •  Kumura Foundation is a community-based organisation that focuses on helping the poor and disadvantaged people of rural Usino-Bundi, Madang in areas of healthcare, education, eco-tourism and community services. To know more about the kind of work they do and help support the cause, visit the Kumura Foundation Facebook page.