Oza Aza Sewing School Project Report

Oza Aza Sewing School Project

Project Report

Compiled and written by Ms. Leesa Timbi

August 2023

Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to inform the Papua New Guinea Women’s Association of Victoria members, project sponsors, supporters, project stakeholders and other interested parties of the completion of PNGWAV’s contribution and commitment to the overall Oza Aza Sewing School Project.

The Oza Aza Sewing School is located in a rural village in Henganofi which is a district in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. This school was founded more than 10 years ago by Ms. Lendel Klaus in a small village called Avavinofi which is located in the outskirts of the Henganofi district. The school was started with the aim to assist disenfranchised women in Henganofi who had had no way to support themselves financially. The sewing skills they learnt from the school would help them create products to sell at the local markets in order to earn money to support their children and extended families. This plight of this school was made known to PNGWAV in 2019 by Mofa Nina Giheno.

The executives of PNGWAV in 2019 made a decision to support the Oza Aza school as it aligned with one of the mission statements of PNGWAV which was to be a channel that could bring support to empower our mothers and sisters back in PNG.

PNGWAV made an intention to help raise funds to build a new more permanent classroom for Oza Aza after receiving a quotation from a local builder for a simple classroom around 2019 – early 2020. PNGWAV and friends collectively raised $2000 and the efforts to fundraise was hampered by the unpredictable covid19 lockdown in Victoria.

It was around this time that PNGWAV asked if Rotary Passport Melbourne could take over the project of building the classroom to which the president at the time agreed. It was decided that the $2000 that was raised be used to buy sewing machines for the school. Those machines were eventually delivered to the Oza Aza school in July 2023 fulfilling PNGWAV’s commitment to the Oza Aza School and formally handing over the project to Rotary to continue.

Graduating class of 2022. Photo Credit: Ms. Mofa Nina Giheno

Oza Aza Sewing School Background

The Oza Aza school has had more than 300 students pass through its doors since its inception more than 10 years ago. As the school continued over the years, the number of student intake also increased. There have been two formal graduations so far and the last graduation was in 2021 and was one of the largest graduations with more than 120 students graduating. The typical student at the Oza Aza school would be a woman aged 19 – 60 from varying socio-economic backgrounds. Annual school fee is K200/student ($90-$100/Student).

The Oza Aza classroom is a traditional hut. Made out of semi-permanent materials that are prone to weather, noise and other elements. There is one small outdoor pit toilet located slightly behind the classroom that services the students as a school toilet. A fabric curtain serves as the privacy door for the toilet. The classroom doesn’t have a door and is built with low walls and has leaves and sawdust over the earth as flooring.

In 2019, Ms. Nina Giheno, founder of Mofa foundations, reached out to Leesa Timbi (who was the president of PNGWAV at the time) on behalf of Oza Aza sewing school. Nina, who originally hails from Henganofi, took some footage of the school and the students and sent it to Leesa. Leesa created a short information video to garner support for the Oza Aza school. In the clip, Lendel and her students made an appeal for help to buy sewing machines. The footage showed how the classroom which had holes in the walls and the ceilings. The women sat on plastic mats on the bare earth to sew as they had no tables or chairs to sit on. There were several donations that came in through the PNGWAV patron as a result of the awareness. Later Nina organized a quotation from a local builder in Goroka to building a simple classroom (quotation attached).

Oza Aza Graduating class of 2022 Photo Credit: Nina Giheno

Challenges

Unpredictable Covid 19 lockdowns hampered the fundraising efforts. Later in 2020 the video clip was further edited and re-circulated by Ms. Micheline Erbes who was the PNGWAV president from 2020 – 2022. Micheline took over the project from 2020 and continued approaching many different organizations for support. A few organizations showed an interest to assist but none came through as time went on. The PNGWAV youth had a sausage sizzle at Bunnings in early 2021 and they managed to raise funds and a decision was made to donate the funds raised to the Oza Aza sewing school. Later in 2021 Micheline set up a Go Fund Me page for the Oza Aza school but it did not get much traction as it Covid19 and its impact was taking center stage in terms of focus.

Handing over the classroom building project to Rotary

It was quite difficult to continue to raise funds as by then the covid19 lockdowns in Victoria were volatile and people’s focus shifted to the imminent issues pertaining the lockdown. It was around mid-2021 that Micheline asked Mrs. Jenny Forster, who is the founder of Rotary Passport Melbourne (RPM) for assistance with the project. Jenny, who was the president of RPM at that time, agreed on condition of due diligence to take on the project of building of the classroom. Jenny requested more details of the school, the land title and other information. This information was collected by Nina and provided to the then President of Rotary Club of Goroka, Mr. Osivo Ombuano. Both Nina and Osivo made trips to the school in Henganofi (45mins drive from Goroka town) to meet with Lendel and the local leaders of Henganofi to inform them of the change that had happened and that now it was Rotary that would be assisting them. They collected the information and send it all through to Jenny.

Changes

Communications about the project was touch and go during the lockdown periods. There was a small informal committee formed in Melbourne to assist with the Oza Aza school. This was made up of Jenny Foster, Micheline Erbes, Olivia E. Ephraim and Leesa Timbi. Osivo Ombuano and Nina Giheno would zoom in from Goroka and WhatsApp when they could to update the informal committee on the information that had been collected. The information in question was mainly pertaining to the land and other projects that could be done in conjunction with the building of the classroom. They meetings continued through zoom once a month to gather information and to see how it was tracking. It was around that time that Jenny informed us that she was no longer with Rotary Passport Melbourne Club. The Oza Aza project would now be shifted under a new Rotary club that is to be launched in October 24th 2023 called the “Global Mission”. Jenny Foster is the founder of this new Rotary Club.

PNGWAV’s contribution to the project

In mid-2022, after communications with the Oza Aza project team in Australia including Nina, the PNGWAV team made a decision to use the money they had raised to purchase sewing machines for the school. Nina was tasked to ask Lendel if that was ok and if she could choose the sewing machines from Brian Bell in Goroka. Lendel and Nina went to Brian Bell Goroka and got a quotation (attached). Lendel chose 3 x sewing machines and 1 x overlocker. It proved a challenge for numerous reasons to pay Brian Bell directly from the PNGWAV account using the given quotation and so the machines were not able to be purchased that year in 2022.

Completing PNGWAV’s project contribution to Oza Aza

In July 2023, Leesa was able to deliver the quoted sewing machines to the Oza Aza school in Goroka. Micheline transferred the $2000 that was raised into Leesa’s account and she paid for the machines in Hagen Brian Bell and picked up the machines in Goroka Brian Bell. The drive to deliver the machines took a total around 15 hours to Goroka and back from Mount Hagen.

In Goroka, representatives from the Mofa foundation, Osivo from Rotary Goroka and some journalists were able to join Leesa and her team from Hagen in the 1-hour drive from Goroka to the Oza Aza school to present the machines to the school.

There was a small welcome ceremony with local community reps telling us about their community and the positive changes that the Oza Aza school has brought to the community. After the presentations, Leesa asked Osivo to show

her where the proposed school would be built. The school would be built on a land on a hill slightly above the original classroom. There is a hut there that needs to be cleared and Osivo said that they owners of this particular piece of land have given this land over to the Oza Aza sewing school. Leesa did not quantify this information with Lendel and her husband assuming it was all agreed on. Nina Giheno said she would got to the school and clarify these changes. Apparently, the school was supposed to be built where the original classroom is as stated by Nina as that was the original agreement but now the change is that it will be built on the hill. This will have been clarified by the time this report is finalized.

Recognition of contributors to the project

Donors

Councilor Victoria Borg & Co

Mary Borg & Friends $680

Mr. Richard Farrugia, President of the Deer Park Social Bocce Club (2019)

$250

Anonymous $70

$1000 Nina Giheno/Mofa Foundation

Introducing the school to PNGWAV, initiating the awareness through raw footage, awarding a job to Oza Aza valued at K3,000 and donating K2000 worth of material to the school

Initiating awareness of the project in Victoria by creating and distributing the video clip. Delivering the sewing machines to Henganofi. PNG. Creating the project report for PNGWAV and the follow up video clip of the completion of the project from PNGWAV’s side.

Micheline Erbes Took over project in 2020 – 2021, Created Go Fund me page, re-editing the video clip and restarting fundraising campaign after lockdown. Initiating conversation with Rotary to take over the project.

Oza Aza Sewing School Project

Recommendations for Oza Aza classroom building project team (rotary), Australia.

Having seen first-hand visited the site of the Oza Aza sewing school, Lendel, her family, the students and the community leaders and students, I got an insight into some of the nuances from the community and the school.

General recommendations

1. There may be a need to build the capacity of the management of the school in terms of training for

o Admin

o Financial Literacy

o Create Policies and procedures for staff (i.e., conflict resolution etc.)

o Business management (staff wages, security wages, budgeting, forecasting etc.)

2. Constant blackouts and unreliable power in the village may affect the use of the electric machines. There seemed to be no power points in the classroom. I did not ask about the reliability of the electricity as it is general knowledge that most PNG provinces have constant blackouts – sometimes for days on end. It would be worth considering alternative power sources for the school to cover when there are blackouts:

o Solar panels (with batteries)

o Generator

o Water turbines to produce electricity from nearby river

3. A functioning and resourceful school board would be helpful to guide and assist the growth of the school especially during the initial expansion phase of the school.

Proposed Classroom site(s) recommendation

The land that was initially decided to be used to build the classroom is the same land that the current classroom is on. The new proposed site is on a hill. I have a few recommendations based on my observations. The comparative table below was created to assist in weighing out the pros and cons of building in either site. The list created in the table is not exhaustive.

Comparative table of Pros and Cons for the two building sites

Site A (Original Classroom site)

Site B (new lager site on hill)

Pros Cons Pros Cons

Manageable in terms of size and not much of a difference to the size of their current class

Next to Lendel’s hut and community school so potentially may have watchful eyes all the time for security

Expansion may be required and this may mean either relocating or building a second story on top

Right next to road side with no safety barriers posing more risk for potential car accidents, thefts, breaking ins

Distant from the highway, so poses a potential barrier for theft and car accidents

More challenging access for builders to build the classroom on a hill, could cost more

More intake capacity risk of lack of management capacity for sudden migration to a larger classroom with more intake

Reduced risk of lack of management capacity in comparison to migrating to a larger classroom

May cost less to build with simpler and smaller design

The size may be limiting for the intake potential of the school

Will provide an opportunity to upskill Lendel and current staff (if any)

May require more staff, additional training and additional processes - for admin, staff, security, etc

Land belongs to Lendel and her husband and the agreement to give the land to the school was witnessed by all community leaders, local councilors and on the state dec before the courts.

This site may not be permanent for long term

This could be a permanent site and may serve the school if managed well for a good number of years

May cost more to build as site it is on a hill and slightly sloped and not level like the land near the highway

May require fencing and road barriers as it is very close to the main highway. Extra costs for security measures.

There is a possibility of building a wash project at that location as it is close to the mountain (as suggested by Ozivo during the visit to this site).

Slight risk as this land does not belong to Lendel and husband initially and involves a third party. Yet to verify if the agreement to give this land to the school was a consultative process that was witnessed and agreed upon by all stakeholders

Financial Report of Oza Aza trip

- Exchange rate at the time of purchase (11/07) was K2.36477748 to AUD$1.00

- Cost of 3 x sewing machines and overlocker in AUD at the time of purchase was $1894.47

- There was AUD105.53 (K249.55) left over after purchase of machines

- Cost of diesel was K5.29/L at the time. The cost of fuel was partially covered by the left-over money as the trip was more than 50L.

Appendixes

1. Brian Bell Goroka Quotation

2. Bank transaction Screenshot

3. Brian Bell Receipt

4. A picture of the receipt for fuel was not taken and couldn’t find the original receipt but fuel price at the time and vehicle type can be verified if need be.

5. Original Quotation for building school including plan

6. State Declaration from Osivo regarding new proposed site for building Oza Aza classroom

Brian Bell Goroka Quotation

Bank transaction Screenshot

Brian Bell Receipt

State Declaration from Osivo regarding new proposed site for building Oza Aza classroom