Sarah Haoda Todd

Sarah Haoda Todd is an entrepreneur, fashion designer, and activist from Lae, Papua New Guinea. After starting a cleaning business in 1997, Haoda Todd went on to become a fashion designer, basing her designs on the art, culture, materials, and symbols of Morobe Province and Papua New Guinea. She is also one of the founders of Arise Women, an organization that fights against violence affecting women and children.
Family life.
Originally from Poreporena village in Port Moresby, she married her husband, entrepreneur Gordon Todd, on July 23, 2005 and they settled in Lae. They have five children.
Early entrepreneurship.
After working as an executive assistant for a mining company and as an advertising executive for a plastics and chemical manufacturer, Haoda Todd went out on her own. When Haoda Todd started her cleaning service, Lae Everclean Limited, in 1997, she had just three employees. Originally based in Lae City, the second-largest city in PNG, her goal was to become a laundry and drycleaning service, but she had trouble getting it up and running. Among other things, she was turned down for small business loans three times.
Haoda Todd recalls that she had to figure out many of the ins and outs of running a business as she got started. Many times she wanted to give up. However, she credits an Australian retiree, Ron Werner, for mentoring her through the early years. When she could not make it by focusing on laundry, he suggested that she "clean toilets and buildings." Lae Everclean grew into a cleaning and laundry service with large corporate clients, such as SP Brewery in Lae and Nambawan Super Ltd in Port Moresby. In 2008, she expanded to Port Moresby, and by 2013, this business employed over 350 people.
Westpac Women in Business Award.
The success of Lae Everclean got the attention of the Westpac Women in Business Awards. In 2011, Haoda Todd was nominated for the SP Brewery Entrepreneur Award, recognizing "the outstanding achievement by a woman with at least a 50% shareholding in an organization in the field of innovation for new products or services." Haoda Todd thanked her employees for their loyalty and professional, positive attitudes, crediting them with the success of the business. In addition to winning the SP Brewery Entrepreneur Award, judges selected Haoda Todd to receive the overall Westpac Women in Business Award for 2011. The overall award included a scholarship worth more than K26,000. For reference, annual minimum wage in PNG in 2011 was K4763.2. She also won a trip to attend Westpac's women's market workshop in Australia.
Education.
In 2012 Haoda Todd completed a two-year Diploma in Management from Divine Word University, PNG. She then completed the Executive MBA program at Papua New Guinea University of Technology.
Expanding entrepreneurship.
Following the Westpac Women in Business Award, Haoda-Todd began speaking internationally, including while taking part in a US State Department professional exchange, the 2012 The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in Washington, DC, and at the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organization's (PIPSO) Women in Business Conference in Nadi, Fiji.
In 2012, Haoda Todd founded PNGianKala (pronounced "Papua New Guinean color"), a clothing company, with the motto: "Wear your culture." She draws on cultures and beauty of PNG to inspire her designs and to protect and preserve diverse and unique art and culture, inspired by such local materials as bilum, tattoo, and Oro tapa. She premiered the line at an Indigenous Business Council fundraiser. PNGianKala includes labels such as her Kekeni line, and Sha-mata Clothing, making American consumer products in clothing and accessories. In 2017, her newest line, honoring Susan Karike Huhume, the woman who had designed the PNG flag, was to premiere at the Pacific Resort Wear show, her third runway show in Fiji. Because PNG does not have the capacity to do digital printing on high quality silk, Haoda Todd has commissioned a company overseas to do the printing. Unfortunately, when the agent saw she was from "New Guinea," her cloth was all shipped to Africa, which meant she had nothing to show. She managed to get her designs printed on to Spandex—the closest fabric available—and had twelve outfits to reveal at the show.
Along with shows in Fiji, Indonesia, and Australia PNG Fashion and Design Week highlighted Haoda Todd's work. These exposure led to attention in Europe, including at London Pacific Fashion Week in 2017 and 2018. The first time she traveled to London she was the only designer representing PNG; in 2018 she took Anna Amos of AA Tribal and also Alang Isaac, a model from her Angau Angles organization. However, it was challenging to raise the funds for them to travel and ship exhibits to London.
Selected runway shows include:
By 2015, Haoda Todd was managing business interests in PNG, Australia, Fiji and a number of Asian countries.
Fashion retailer Jack's of PNG commissioned PNGianKala for an exclusive line of clothing in 2016.
In 2017 Haoda Todd lead an effort to launch PNGiankala Runway, a platform PNG designers can join to help raise funds to travel abroad.
Civic life.
Haoda Todd has maintained an active and engaged civic life. Clearly, she has cultivated a voice of moral authority in her community. She focuses on opportunities for business development and women's rights.
Indigenous Business Council.
Arguing that only ten percent of the formal business sector in PNG is owned by indigenous individuals, Haoda Todd was one of a group of businesspeople—including Sir Nagora Bogan—who felt the need for an organization to be a voice for aspiring indigenous entrepreneurs. In 2011, at the Indigenous Business Summit and Trade Expo in Kokopo, participants representing over 750 indigenous-owned businesses identified this need. On December 14, 2012 their dream was realized with the formal launch of the Indigenous Business Council, followed by an agreement from the government to grant $500 million in support of recruiting and developing indigenous-owned businesses. Haoda Todd was Secretary from 2011 to 2013. Citing constraints on accessing credit, accessing raw materials, no consistent access to basic services due to poor infrastructure such as roads, lack of electricity, lack of knowledge in technology, and human resources and cultural beliefs, the council offers planning assistance, paperwork assistance, and training in other areas that Haoda Todd remembers learning by trial and error. Overall, it aims to protect indigenous business owners and their businesses.
Since the organization had no funding, she organized a series of fundraiser to keep the Council operating.
Haoda Todd believes there exists the local talent and workforce to build a fashion industry in PNG, and hopes local people will take it seriously as a basis for careers and successful enterprises.
Transparency International PNG.
Building on her commitment to businesses and the challenges brought on by corruption, Haoda Todd was treasurer and on the Board of Directors for Transparency International PNG, in 2013–2014. She helped organize the Sir Anthony Siaguru Walk Against Corruption in 2013.
Women Arise PNG.
Haoda Todd once again entered a new field of civic engagement in November 2011, when the city of Lae experienced widespread riots in which dozens of people were killed or injured. While media reports a variety of causes, from ethnic tensions to rising crime rates, at least part of the anger was sparked by sexual assaults on two young women. Haoda Todd was angry that the task force put together to analyze ethnic tensions and work towards solutions was entirely male. She called upon the local government to make sure women were appointed to work on the investigation and repair, as well. Once activated, Haoda Todd became an activist for women's right to safety. After a series of attacks on women in 2013, she and Esther Igo formed a group called "Women Arise PNG," and went to Parliament House in Port Moresby to meet with the national Minister for Community Development, Hon. Loujaya Toni, to argue for prioritizing action to end violence. Haoda Todd continued with local action with Women Arise, including: the "Walk Against Violence" rally held in Lae on Sunday 21 February 2016; fundraising for events raising awareness about violence against women; partnerships with other interested organizations, such as Femili PNG; the #JusticeforMoanna campaign, responding to the shooting of an innocent young woman; leadership in calling for the Government, students, police, and the University of PNG administration to work together to find a way out of violence that led to the shooting of University of PNG students in 2016; and even helping gather supplies for families affected by an earthquake in the area in 2018.
Angau Memorial General Hospital.
Hospital governance.
Haoda Todd is a board member of Angau Memorial General Hospital in Lae City. She believes that PNG's success is directly tied to the health of its citizens, and promoted programs through which the hospital helped assure individuals in rural regions access to healthcare.
More recently, in 2019, Haoda Todd was one of nine local leaders the provincial and national governments tapped to lead the newly founded Morobe Health Authority (MPHA). Bringing together influential community members with local religious, civic, and business organizations to offer oversight of local health services, the government hoped, would make them more effective and efficient.
Angau Angels Foundation.
The Angau Angels are a group of people who have benefited from the hospital, organized to support its ongoing services. Formally speaking, "[t]he Angau Angels Foundation is a non-government organization set up to identify the gaps in the health sector and find ways to help alleviate them." Through fundraising, as well as outreach, logistical support, and in-kind donations, such as medical equipment. For example, the Angau Angles has contacts with the PNG Women's Association of NSW, Australia. That group organized a drive to donate medical supplies.
As with other organizations that need to fundraise, Hadoa Todd helps the Angau Angels organize fashion shows to raise money for the hospital. When the 6th PNG Games were held in Lae, she directed the Angau Angels Fashion Extravaganza, which featured work from a range of PNG fashion designers, modeled by seventy young people who were born at the hospital or had otherwise benefited from its services.
One of her Angau Angels models is Alang Isaac, who has worked runways for PNGianKala in various countries, as well as singing for the domestically popular band, Jokema.
Other civic activities.
In addition, Haoda Todd has been a committee member of the PNG Red Cross, Lae Branch, director on the Board of Habitat for Humanity, Papua New Guinea, director on TISOL Board (The International School of Lae).
Beauty pageants.
Herself a former Miss Papua New Guinea, Haoda Todd was a judge in the Miss South Pacific beauty pageant in 2014. She was also a judge for the Digicel PNG Foundation's 2016 Men of Honor Awards, Community Leadership category.