Empowering women is the driving force behind Therese Kaetavara entering Bougainville's latest parliament.
Kaetavara won the South Bougainville women's seat in the August election and has since been made deputy speaker.
She has had a long involvement in community work throughout Papua New Guinea and said she was struck by how women in south Bougainville fail to get the services they should.
Therese Kaetavara, Women's MP for South Bougainville Photo: facebook
Kaetavara, whose son Emmanuel-Carlos is also a new MP, said she wanted to secure international aid to ensure women can access small business development loans the PNG government is going to make available.
"So my objective is to help my women achieve the means of securing SME funding, so that is why I am calling on the partners and donors to help me to start, or continue, economic sustainability projects, and business management and sustainability training, for the women within south Bougainville," Kaetavara said.
