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In Keerom, farmers grow areca nuts,
(pinang) but it is hard to sell them.
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In Wamena, people love to chew pinang,
but do not grow the trees.
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Given this situation, we saw a chance to
link mama-mama (Papuan women)
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in Keerom who have pinang trees,
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with mama-mama who sell them on
the streets in Wamena.
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Let's Sell Pinang
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We can buy them from the Butonese
merchants,
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but we don't make any profit.
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How much are these pinang?
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5,000 (rupiah).
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Sometimes I buy it from the Butonese.
I get one kilogram for 70,000 (rupiah).
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But for the past several days, it was
for 65,000 (rupiah).
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After I buy them, I display them here
from morning until night.
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At night, up until 8 or 9pm.
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Sometimes if these nuts aren't sold,
I bring them back home.
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They sell pinang in the small stores
too, so it's hard to compete.
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In that store, they sell kerosene,
cooking oil and other stuff too.
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So we mama-mama (Papuan women),
what can we do?
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We're not into starting a conflict
with them. No!
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But how do we empower the
Papuan women?
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If they don't have enough money to
begin with, we help them to get it.
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They can potentially become agents
(distributors) for buying.
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Mama-mama who have pinang trees can
also potentially become distributors.
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It is positive competition.
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We faced obstacles but the Father
from YTHP opened a business for us.
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He is very kind. His efforts have
opened doors for us.
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So we think this (business) could
make our lives better and happier.
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Yayasan Teratai Hati Papua (Teratai
Hati Papua Foundation) assists us now.
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Their help enables us.
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We can sell pinang but it's not like
before.
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YTHP helps us to buy two kilograms
of pinang.
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We can buy three kilograms.
It depends on us.
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But if we want to buy more than two
kilograms, we must pay for it ourselves.
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So, the price of pinang can increase, but
it's not a problem if it goes up or down.
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We've set our price. It's fixed.
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We take one kilogram. If we sell it all,
we get 140,000, 150,000 rupiah.
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From that we can give 70,000 rupiah
back.
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So we are asking the government,
please take care of us.
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Papuan women can only sell small items.
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Don't give permission to the big merchants
(to sell pinang).
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They should only permit the big merchants
to sell goods other than pinang.
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Don't put small tables outside the store
and sell onions, pinang.
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Give that chance to the Papuan women.
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The Papuan women should sell these items
and not the stores.
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Take pity on them.
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