Cash and voucher assistance helping women in PNG

By Elizabeth Michael, Save the Children in PNG

It hasn’t always been an easy road for Rita, who is from a small village in Morobe province in PNG. She doesn’t have a permanent home to live in and has in the past faced discrimination from her community because of her disability. In spite of these challenges, Rita completed high school, and now works at her local elementary school.

Rita was thrilled to receive digital cash payment through the Disaster READY program. IMAGE: Elizabeth Michael/Save the Children in PNG

Through an assessment, Save the Children found that many communities in Morobe were affected by or vulnerable to the El Niño drought. It revealed that people with disabilities like Rita were particularly vulnerable.

Under the Australian Humanitarian Partnership’s Disaster READY program, Save the Children used the Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) modality to provide disaster recovery and social protection support to these communities. Financial service provider, MiBank, facilitated the electronic distribution of 200 Papua New Guinean Kina (around $80 Australian dollars). They also helped ensure that people who received assistance had bank accounts so cash could be sent directly to their accounts.

 An emotional Rita was one of the cash recipients who was thankful for the assistance:

 “I am happy that Save the Children brought this project to my village, it has really made it easier for someone like me to have a bank account,” Rita said. “It also the first time for me to receive cash. I’ve never received any money from my immediate family ever since my parents passed away.”

 Rita bought food items along with health and hygiene products for herself such as a hair brush, perfume, and menstrual pads. She also purchased a small music box to keep her company and calm her mental health. Thirty nine people in Rita’s village received electronic cash payments, including breastfeeding mothers and three pregnant women.

Yanik with her new Mi Bank card. IMAGE: Elizabeth Michael/Save the Children in PNG

Forty-three-year-old elementary teacher Yanik also received support through the CVA distribution. As a mother, the health and wellbeing of her young children is very important to Yanik. She often worries about her children getting sick as there isn’t a health facility nearby. She shared that it’s hard for her to save money on a teacher’s salary. She cannot afford the high cost of travelling to the provinces capital or even pay for her children’s medical bills.  When her children have been sick in the past, she has at times tried to treat them at home.

“I often try treat my children with herbs or home remedies when they get sick, so I can use the little I earn to buy food for our big family,” Yanik said.

When she received her digital cash payment Yanik quickly purchased medication for her children. She can store away this medication and later treat her children if they get sick, meaning she doesn’t necessarily have to make the long and costly journey to a medical facility.  

Yanik said the Mibank account that she opened with the help of Disaster READY is now her children’s saving account, a place to deposit money for their future needs like medical or school fees.