To Be Somebody

Everyone has dreams. Ask children, and they've often already chosen heroes and aspirations. Ask parents, and they hold even bigger dreams for their children. For those living in a country of opportunity, dreams are commonly nurtured, then born.

But there’s absolutely no one who dreams of a future where they’re uneducated or living in poverty. Of being shamed, denied, and considered a “nobody.” But many are born into circumstances in which dreams seem preposterous. For those, it takes hard-held aspirations and unfaltering courage to even dream, much less achieve those dreams. Such are the women I met in Lae, Papua New Guinea.

Here gender inequality is stifling the dreams of many women. Four out of every 10 women are illiterate,1 and 37 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.2 Although they are the ones who most arduously seek to meet their children’s needs, women are often looked down upon since only with literacy and an income comes equality. Women have many entrepreneurial dreams to support their families, but lack the money or documentation to access formal lending to bring them to life.

Deciding that their dreams had lived latent long enough, these women joined ADRA’s economic development project. The project, which teaches business management and functional literacy, currently benefits 589 women and 25 men. Women join the group with aspirations for goal savings for their children’s education or other large purchases, or for loan savings and have started such businesses as a poultry farm, a secondhand clothing shop, a trade store, a bakery, and a soap-making enterprise.

“Men too often use their income for drinking, leaving their children’s food and school fee needs unmet,” says Julie Idafit, a participant in the project. Seeing these needs in her community, she now mentors 90 other women, new participants in the project.

Empowering and unleashing the dreams of women has a ripple affect on her community. Watching her long-held dreams come true, Kiaki Atte, a participant and then later an area supervisor, is mentoring new groups of women she encouraged to join the project. “People in my community live like I used to,” she says. “But I know women can save money and chase their dreams. I want for them what ADRA gave to me.”

1 CIA World Factbook, March 2005. 2003 estimates.
2 CIA World Factbook, March 2005. 2002 estimates.