Joanne Dateransi Apea
As Ples: Guava Village, Panguna
Occupation: Women’s Liaison Officer
Meet Joanne Dateransi. She is a proud mother of 5, a master chef, expert gardener and our only female VLO. She has a hunger for reading, her absolute passion is to read and learn. Her favourite author is Danielle Steele.
When we asked her why she is working for a company like BCL, she told us, “It’s very interesting to be with a company like BCL. Growing up, I lived in Panguna when BCL was mining. There were lots of things happening at the time. After I finished highschool, I went to college and am a trained typist. I came back to Panguna and worked with catering company SHRM which was linked to BCL, I actually met my husband there.
“My people have so many issues with BCL. There is so much damage that came to us (the landowners) because of the mining which happened on our land. I wanted to know more about the situation with BCL and what they are planning to do to help rebuild their relationship with Bougainville.
As a VLO, we deal with people in the village, especially landowners. We take their grievances and speak with BCL about the issues and damages and how we can work together to fix it. I have two projects at the moment, water supply and funding an elementary school, which people really need in villages. This is something that I know that BCL is working on to help the remote villages.“