Preparing for Tari

I will be leaving POM on Thursday, 19-Jan, headed for Tari to attend a celebration. I have been invited to attend the Grand Launch of a brand new company, Upstream Hela Women Limited (http://uhwomen.com) and I am so very excited. There are several interesting things of note about this group of women. First, they come from the new Hela Province, an area not known for its support of empowered women. Second, the Board of Directors is made up entirely of women. Third, the 200 shareholders are also all women. It's simply phenomenal!

At the Grand Launch, several speakers of interest are on tap to speak. I, too, was asked to speak but prefer that my role continue to be one of support and encouragement; this is THEIR day. But, I'm thrilled to be invited to be there, and to be a part of it in a small way. I am so very excited, and have such high hopes for these women! Does it show?

The other really cool thing about this event will be the roll-out of this group of women's new truck. Yes, that's right...their truck. Last year my company, Trans Wonderland Limited (http://www.twl.com.pg), instituted an innovative plan to establish a consortium of trucks, 10 trucks, that would belong to 10 individual lancos [landowner companies]. This was done for a number of reasons. First, it allows lancos that were not a part of the original TWL shareholder base to participate in a business venture with TWL. Second, it allows for TWL to offset some of their capital funds by having these 10 trucks owned and paid for by others. Third, the consortium is set up to offset the risks that a single truck company might face by paying out profits and sharing expenses by the 10 trucks as a block rather than individually. And this win-win design also allowed the most amazing thing of all...it provided for a company consisting entirely of women to enter the transportation industry and participate in a real, and potentially lucrative, way.

So, I'm headed to Tari for the weekend to celebrate with these amazing women. And I can't wait to report on the happenings when I get back to POM!