BY JOY OFASIA
THE Christmas holiday season is here, and many women are aiming to make profits this December by creating and selling handmade goods to attract customers’ preferences on the streets of Honiara.
This endeavor is also true for Yshelda Tutua, 33, of Marovo, in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, who was born with a speech impairment condition. She and her spouse have made lovely Christmas-designed earrings and wrist bracelets.
She also urges everyone who sees her strolling the bustling streets of Honiara to stop and look at her handcrafted jewelry items. She’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas 2023 and a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2024.
Like many hardworking mothers who have worked hard to put food on the table for their family every day, Yshelda Tutua is one classic example. She told Solomon Women that despite facing daily financial and personal challenges, she hopes to earn little for her family this Christmas season.
While her husband watches their children at home, she makes earrings at home and conducts street sales.
The mother of three lives at Panatina in Honiara with her family. Apart from making handmade jewelry, she also makes and sells cloth food covers and dyes lava. As a struggling mother, this has become her passion, and she has turned it into a little informal business that has helped her family while living in Honiara.
Although she was born with a speech impairment, Yshelda Tutua is a natural learner, and most of her skills and knowledge on how to make her handmade products are self-taught through interaction with other craftswomen in her community.
