Copyright postcourier
ACHIEVING her dream of becoming successful in some kind of business activities was Delilah’s dream for a very long time. But it was not easy. She completed grade ten in 1981 and was not too sure about what to do with her life. She tried looking for jobs from one office to the other in Goroka, but the answer was always the same – Sorry, nogat wok. For Delilah, it took more than that for her to quit. She was ambitious. Her dream was to be successful in some sort of business venture, to create something for herself and make it work. She needed capital to set herself up. She tried the banks for loans but her applications were rejected. Obviously, she had to look at other ways to raise the money. Delilah met her husband Ben in Goroka and they were married in 1982. She managed to get a job with Talair in Goroka. Ben was working with Talair at the time and they were later transferred to Vanimo and after that to Daru. Delilah and Ben were later transferred to Kiunga in the Western Province in 1986, with Ben managing the Talair depot there. Her family grew and with four children, she felt the need to help her husband by supplementing his fortnightly salary. As well as that, she decided that it was time she did something about fulfilling her old dream – to do something for herself. Delilah decided to sell ice blocks. Then she had a better idea and included betelnuts in her sales. She started her day at six o’clock in the morning and worked until six o’clock in the evening. It was a very slow process but Delilah had the patience to continue. It took her two years to reach her goal – to save enough money to start a small business. The next step was to rent a building block so she could establish a new clothing shop. She was convinced that there was a demand for it. Delilah successfully operated her clothes shop for three years without any competition. Now there are a couple of similar shops in town. She says this is not affected her business at all but she is pleased that she was the first person to come up with a service like that for the people of Kiunga. Delilah would like to conclude her story with a little encouragement to all women out there: “Don’t sit around waiting for something to happen – make it happen yourself.” To see this and access more stories from our 55 years old history from 1950’s – 2000’s, do visit our Post-Courier archive or email denaha@spp.com.pg or call on +675 309 1120 for more information.
