PENAMPANG: A Rungus costume weaver, Hani Majial, of Kampung Kandang Liu Pitas has found a new way to market traditional products.Invited by Pacos Trust, a community based voluntary organisation to help raise the quality of life of indigenous communities, she came with a hope that she would be given guidelines on how to do marketing.
“We have been doing this traditional weaving for many years and even taught our own children so that the skill will go on to the next generation.
“We want to sell our products because there is no other way for us to make money. The problem is we do not have the skill to compete with other entrepreneurs,” said Hani who admitted that most of their products were sold with the help of Pacos Trust.
She said her community wanted to develop the business and earn a bit of money to improve their standard of living.
Hani had come with two of her friends from her village to listen to business advisor and digital media personality, Whitney Keyes from theUnited States of America who gave talks during a workshop on ‘Empowering Women Through Entrepreneurship’ yesterday.
“I was really excited during the first lesson this morning when Whitney explained and gave examples on how to network among women entrepreneurs.
“We thank Pacos for providing a translator to explain what Whitney was talking about because we were not educated in English,” she said during the second day of the seminar at the Penampang library here, yesterday.
The same working papers were presented where about 60 local entrepreneurs had attended the previous day.
The second day yesterday attracted about 40 women and some male entrepreneurs from the rural areas, namely Tambunan, Pitas, Keningau, Sipitang, Ranau, and Kudat.
“Whitney gave us so many real life examples.
“I hope what I learned today I can bring back to our village and share it with our eco-tourism community,” said 36 year old Cita Gosungkit from Kampung Togudon here.
Cita is one of the organisers of their community business who wants to learn more on leadership skills and finance administration so as to keep their business alive and contribute something to the people.
She is hoping that their eco-tourism business at the end of the Moyog River will develop and they will find a brand that can help sell their kampung.
“We do not have a river to provide fishing activities for our guests; our village also do not have the most basic amenity in modern society – electricity supply,” she stressed, adding that they are running out of idea on how to interest their guest to come or to return to their village.
She however, believed that with a strong basic knowledge and network, their business would improve gradually as long there was teamwork among the villages.
“As Whitney had said, there are so many challenges in entrepreneurship but where is a will there is a way,” added Cita.
Executive Director of Pacos Trust, Anne Lasimbang, said the purpose of the seminar that invited women entrepreneurs from the rural areas was to give more knowledge to them and for them to be more independent in business.
“This workshop is aimed to empower women to advance themselves economically and socially.
“The very basic knowledge given by Whitney will grow since many entrepreneurs attended the seminar today (yesterday) and they will keep in touch with each other to help each other out,” she said.