Participants of the acrylic painting competition during the MykiFest at Sakhrie Park, Kohima on March 8. (Morung Photo)
Morung Express News
Kohima | March 8
Keeping in mind the contribution of women in the overall progress and development of society, the fourth edition of the MykiFest culminated at Sakhrie Park, Kohima on March 8. MykiFest is a continuation of the programme of Hornbill Festival-cum-MykiFest 2021 which was halted due to the incident at Oting, Mon. MykiFest is an annual event to celebrate the achievements and activities of women entrepreneurs, artisans, cultivators and Self Help Groups (SHGs) aligning with the Women Resource Department.
During the occasion, the Department of Women Resource Development, Government of Nagaland presented the MykiFest Award 2021-2022 to Sesino Yhoshü, Zakilhounuo Tepa, Abi Humtsoe, and Sibeule Zeliang during the event. The awardees were given a cash prize of Rs 40,000 each along with certificates and gift hampers, stated a DIPR report.
Sesino Yhoshü: Sesino Yhoshü is the Proprietor of TakeOne, Kohima which was started in 2014. TakeOne is an audio-visual production house based in Kohima. Her film, “The Pangti Story” won the Best Environmental Film (non-feature) at the 65th National Film Awards. The same film also won the Golden Beaver Award at the 7th National Science Film Festival 2017. She is also a recipient of the Young Achievers Award in the field of filmmaking conferred by the Dalmia Group. She also won the Best Director (Short Film) for the film “Story of a House” at the Northeast Film Festival 2015.
Zakilhounuo Tepa: Zakilhounuo Tepa, 47 years is a Taxi Driver by profession from Mima village under Kohima district. Shelearned to drive at the age of 31 years and in 2014 started driving her taxi. She drives the taxi between BOC Kohima and Jakhama.
Abi Humtsoe: Abi Humtsoe is the Proprietor of M/S Naga Traditional Corner, Wokha. She is a progressive entrepreneur having a well-established unit dealing in traditional attires and costumes for over 15 years. Having well-acquainted with the choice of demand for material design and style, color preference, or fiber quality, and to meet the variable demand of the customers, she ensures rich availability of traditional attires and costumes, mainly for Lotha-Naga. She also works with some women's cultural groups towards promoting the value of traditional attires by helping them to maintain proper cultural dress at nominal cost.
Sibeule Zeliang: Sibeule Zeliang, 81 years old, is the first lady to contest in the election in 1987 as Independent Candidate from 7 Peren AC. Though she lost the election, she continued as a social worker and helped many women including employing more than 100 women in various fields for self-employment and other sustainable activities. She is presently serving as Chairperson, 6 Ward Mdipuiram and 9 Ward Chairman, Union President, Peren town.
Earlier, the event saw a bevy of activities taking place at the venue such as painting and prepared speech competition. Various heads of departments, organizations, church leaders and well-wishers were also in attendance at the programme.
In the main session, Vilone Sakhrie, Director of Women Resource Department, gave the keynote address on the purpose and significance behind MykeFest and “how we should redirect our outlook towards women in general.”
Speaking about women empowerment, Sakhrie remarked how almost all bureaucratic establishments were male dominated. Even though there were influential women bureaucrats as well, this disparity meant that a lot of policies for the welfare of society get sidelined. And that many of the customary laws are outdated and archaic in nature. He said that ‘if we wish to bring about progress and development in our society, women should be uplifted through monetary and resource allocation.’ He added that this is the reason why we celebrate MykiFest. It is with an aim towards viewing women as equal partners in the state.
Competition on prepared speech and acrylic painting was also organised as part of the MykiFest-cum-International Women’s Day celebration. It was based on the theme, ‘Women Empowerment vis-à-vis Government Policies, Customary Laws, Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment.’ Thuisemla Shanglai won the first prize in the acrylic painting competition and Lihzu Shiney Konyak won the first prize in the prepared speech competition.
A separate viewer’s choice award was also given to Wulo Akami. All the winners and participants were given gift hampers and certificates by the organizers.
