TURRAMURRA HAMAMAS MERIS

Sue Spencer & Pam Pritchard lead the Hamamas Meri support team of the Turramurra Rotary Club, backing up our PNG team and providing community outreach. Engaging a team of approximately 30 women from the Club and Sydney community they source and prepare materials for PNG women’s groups to sew and sell kits. 

Initial training from Ryde Days For Girls Team Leader, Janelle Dodd, got us on the way.

Meeting each month for four hours at a time this group – known as the Turramurra Hamamas Meris - takes on preparatory tasks too difficult in village settings where just finding a suitable working space, tables and chairs can be challenging.

Their preparatory work supports their PNG sisters to focus on kit sewing and maximising kit sales and connects the two groups through friendship.

The group’s monthly working bees are valued over $68,000 however their impact is far greater: they are the backbone of the Hamamas Meri programme which today touches thousands of PNG lives through it’s health awareness sessions, sewing skills training and pathways to income.

Long before the ‘Pacific Step Up” and the “Pacific Pivot” became familiar terms, the Turramurra Hamamas Meris were already walking the talk.

Hamamas Meri….Because PNG women & girls shouldn’t be held back.

THE PROJECT

During the recent completion of the Lap’lang Facility MMBTS students volunteered to source local sago and weave the sago walls.

In support of COVID-Soap, management approved Wantaim PNG’s use of a secure storage and packing space so that 133,000+ bars of soap could be labelled, packed and readied for handover to local level government representatives. 

This major undertaking is repeated each two months and draws in support from management, students and their families alike.

In no small way their collective actions are contributing directly to keeping a province safe.