Hi, I’m Cathy. I come from Madang and Morobe. I’m married to a Central man and have four children. I don’t have a formal employment. I don’t receive a fortnight pay so I care for my family by faith.
My husband also is not employed formally. We sustain ourselves by selling things like cooked food, betelnut and smoke from our own home.
I also sew and patch thorn clothes charging K5 for adults and K2 for small children. Where I live not many women sew for commercial purpose so I was making money from my small sewing business.
At times I make good money from the market but other times I don’t. But I see that God blesses me through my faith, and we don’t go hungry.
My husband is also a carpenter and contributes to our family income by making useful accessories like penny boxes, market tables for street vendors.
Sometimes people ask him to do renovations to their house because he has tools. Then they pay him.
My husband makes coffins too.
We use the money for the children’s school uniforms and fees. But there is competition going on, so right now we get requests from our family and close friends, so we don’t charge them too much.
We were living like that until COVID-19 came and brought on the restrictions and lock down.
But in all these God was always there! There was never a time when we went to bed hungry.
In fact COVID-19 came to me as a blessing in disguise. My husband and children saw an opportunity for face masks and suggested for me to sew. I didn’t know how to sew face masks but when I tried, I succeeded.
The demand for masks was very high and we were making K30-K40 per day from mask sales.
When my husband takes the masks down to the road, people demand for more and they give their money so he would run back to the house with the money.
I had to sew them very quickly so he can take it back. We really benefitted from selling face masks.
Katherine Lem Geno – Gaverahia, Taurama Rd, NCD.