Rita Jaima Paru is a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

n food entrepreneur, who previously ran the company Dial-a-Lunch.

Career

Rita Jaima Paru was born in

where she went to Marianville High School. She attended the

Papua New Guinea University of Technology The Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech) is a university located in Lae, Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Courses offered Unitech offers courses in the following fields: *Agriculture *Architecture * Construction Management ( ...

in 1997, but dropped out following the birth of her daughter. Following the birth of a second child a year later, and began catering out of her home to provide for them. She reinvested some of the money earned in courses in marketing, tourism and sales. She launched the business Dial-a-Lunch in 2000, but it closed down three years later. In 2008, Paru successfully applied for the Australia-Pacific Technical College scholarship after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. She went to

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

where she studied Commercial Cookery. Upon her return, she worked as duty manager at the Beachside Brasserie in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

, but wanted to work in the kitchen and so moved to the Napanapa Oil Refinery as senior chef and was promoted to head chef. She became the Cafeteria manager at the Bank of Papua New Guinea in 2013, and became the retail manager for IPI Catering at the

University of Papua New Guinea The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...

in the following year. She returned to working on Dial-a-Lunch that year, and was nominated for the Entrepreneur Award in the 2014 Westpac Outstanding Women Awards. She catered an event at the Helifax hangar at

Jacksons International Airport Port Moresby International Airport , also known as Jacksons International Airport, is an international airport located outside Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. It is the largest and busiest airport in Papua New Guinea, with an estimated 1.4 ...

a week later, and was offered a commercial space by a local businessman. This enabled her to expand the business greatly around the city. Paru retired from the business in August 2017, handing it over to her eldest daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaima Paru, Rita Living people Papua New Guinean businesspeople Women chefs Year of birth missing (living people)