The July Bilum of Brilliance Series featured Ipul Powaseu, a woman champion who advocates for disability inclusion and awareness on disability rights.
Powaseu contracted the polio virus as an infant that caused partial paralysis which resulted in her needing mobility aid growing up.
But her love for learning created the pathway that took her to Passam National High School, then onto the University of Papua New Guinea, then to Australia and even taking up a job at the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities in Fiji.
Powaseu did all these with the aid of a wheelchair and her challenge to members of the “Business and Professional Women” (BPW) was to continue its sponsorship program.
“My story is a story of resilience. It is a story of persistence,” said Powaseu.
Her journey is amongst those of many Papua New Guinean women who chose education as a way out.
Despite needing mobility aid, Powaseu has gone on to becoming the only sibling in her immediate family to complete University.
“I am the first girl from the (my) village to attain a university degree, and even the first to attain a Masters and now pursuing a PhD,” Powaseu said.
She recalled that her mother cried the whole day, when she left her Island home for studies at the Passam National High School in East Sepik Province.
“So when you talk about the children living with disability, the impact on them also affects their family members, if they are grown up and they have children, it affects them as well,” said Powaseu”
After spending close to 30 years in the agriculture sector, Powaseu left formal employment in 2009 to advocate for inclusion. She says education will take you places.
Her work in the disability rights include PNG Government´s action to ratify the Conventions of Rights for Persons with Disability in 2013, she headed the National Assemble of Disabled Persons for nine years and she is now setting up networks for women with disability across 20 provinces.
“I left my profession because I realized that people especially girls with disabilities were not able to go to school because of discrimination and stigma” said Powaseu.
In Papua New Guinea where there is a lack of facilities for people living with disabilities, it becomes harder for people with special needs to move around on their own.
“For me with a disability, I had to overcome everything,” said Powaseu.
She also spoke of three women with disabilities in Morobe who face challenges when trying to access health services, market spaces or when traveling on public transport.
Her appeal to the BPW Vabukori Community Cluster was to include women in disabilities in their meetings going forward.
“There are women with disabilities in your community, who also don´t just want your prayers, they want you to involve them in your groups as well,” she said.
The Business and Professional Women-Port Moresby Club, is affiliated to BPW International and holds monthly meets for its members.
The Bilum of Brilliance Series will have its next meeting on the 1st of August.