Networking and creating partnerships

Women should be encouraged to find their true potential and explore different life skills to develop themselves, families and communities.

So says the President of Pan Pacific & South East Asia Women’s Organisation, Papali’i Dr. Viopapa Annandale.

Failure to do this holds them back from being empowered, she says.

Her comments come at a time when thousands of delegates are in Samoa to discuss a way forward for the sustainable development of S.I.D.S.

One of the issues being discussed is the empowerment of women, among other women development-related issues.

On Monday, a side event hosted by UN Women presented the opportunity for P.P.S.E.A.W.A to network with delegates at the meeting.

Held at Si’usega, Papali’i says one of the ways to empower women is to encourage them to think outside the box.

For women in Samoa for instance, they need to be proactive in finding markets to sell their handicrafts or whatever is it that they are good at. She says Samoan women are very creative but some are not proactive enough to find markets for their products.

“They need to find opportunities for markets outside the village,” she says. Papali’i says that listening to presentations by women from different countries has been very rewarding.

“They are doing amazing stuff especially women from Papua New Guinea and Fiji.”

The side event on Monday meeting was packed by representatives of P.P.S.E.A.W.A, other S.I.D.S member countries and the Caribbean.

She said the opportunity means finding out about what these other countries were doing.

Looking at Samoa, she said we need to do more in order to progress the work of empowering women, specifically in areas of handicrafts and finding markets for these products.

She expressed amazement at the achievements of other women in visiting countries especially with vendor women and women working with police.

“We are doing very similar things but need to get more serious,” she said.

This is what she means by Samoan women needing to be proactive in finding markets “outside their villages to sell their wares”.

Papali’i urges women to use their creativity to create products to sell and to find markets to sell it to.

She expressed thanks to UNWomen for organising the side event. She also acknowledged and praised the work of the UNWomen in plans to establish a basic website program that women can access to promote and sell their wares.

Her solution is for women to sell themselves and be able “say I am good at what I do I make beautiful ie lavalava and elei come to me and I will sell it to you”.