Skills training empowers women on island

A team of 14 women leaders has started a new skills training project to empower women on Taveuni island. Over the past year, the Taveuni Empowerment of Women Support Group (TEWSG) has been providing training in beekeeping, floriculture, handicrafts and backyard gardening to women from various communities across the island.

Nanise Curuiwaiyevo, the group’s secretary, said that the project has enabled the participants to learn new skills, empowering them to support themselves, their families and their communities.

‘We have seen a lot of changes. Most of us were relying on our husbands, but now that we started our group, we know the potential that’s in us. We started doing things that’s earning money from what we had been taught.’

Nanise Curuiwaiyevo,
TEWSG secretary

 

 

Women leaders driving change at the grassroots level

TEWSG was established in 2014 with the goal of empowering women at the grassroots level on Taveuni, an outer island in the northern division of Fiji. Founded by the late Mrs Volau Yavalanavanua, fondly known as Nana Volau, it is a coalition of 11 women leaders of community groups and 3 independent members. The group meets once a month to share knowledge and work together on various activities. One of their notable successes is the Taste of Taveuni cookbook, which was published in 2014 and shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbooks Award 2016.

According to Nanise, the group encountered some difficulties after their founder, Nana Volau, passed away in 2016. This forced them to operate on a smaller scale due to lack of funding and strategic direction. However, since receiving a sustainability grant from Women’s Fund Fiji in June last year, they have focused their efforts on strengthening their organisation and offering more skills training to women in the communities they serve. They recently bought a laptop, printer and hard drive to help with administrative tasks such as preparing minutes for their meetings and organising training sessions. They are also quite active online, sharing updates of their work on their Facebook page. With help from the local district office, the group is working on getting their business registration and renewing their registration as a non-profit. They are also getting their financials in order and have enlisted the help of an auditor.

A few executive members of TEWSG underwent capacity development training in gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) and child protection with the Women’s Fund Fiji. The GEDSI training uses a participatory approach and includes tools that enable the participation of women and vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities and marginalised communities. They also participated in a training workshop on the Xero accounting app to help them with financial management and reporting, ensuring greater accountability and transparency.

 

Skills training expands livelihood opportunities

Beekeeping is one of the new income-generating activities offered by the group. Under the project, 6 women have received basic beekeeping training along with the equipment they would need to produce honey: bee boxes and beekeeping suits. The training was provided by Atrul Nisha, a professional beekeeper and fellow TEWSG member who has been encouraging other women to take up beekeeping. Nisha is a pioneer in her field, having been the first woman in Fiji to win the Beekeeper of the Year award.

Josephine McComber, one of the trainees, said that she had gained the confidence to look after the bee boxes and could now identify the different types of bees. She added that besides the honey produced from beekeeping, she would use the beeswax in her screen-printing business. She plans to donate her first harvest of honey to the group to support their activities.

Floriculture training was also provided to 13 women, who received materials and assistance to build tunnel shade houses and greenhouses for their plants. Additionally, 12 women underwent training in backyard gardening, focusing on sustainable farming practices. They were also given garden tools and seeds to help them expand their home vegetable gardens.

In the handicraft training, the participants learned new skills like weaving yoga mats and creating rubber stencils and woodblocks for screen printing. They also learned the traditional art of printing on masi, a type of bark cloth made from mulberry trees, which was a first-time experience for many of the participants.

Through the skills training project, TEWSG has empowered women from different communities in the northern part of the island. Some of these women are the sole breadwinners in their households, while others support family members with disabilities. By learning new skills, they have gained the confidence to expand their income-generating activities, leading to greater financial stability and improved quality of life for themselves and their families.

In addition to skills training, these women also need access to markets to sell their handicrafts and other products. As a tourist destination, Taveuni has a demand for handicrafts, and the women are able to sell their products at the monthly artisan markets held there. The group has bought a tent and table for their handicraft displays. They also sell their products at a local handicraft store/salon owned by Josephine, a fellow TEWSG member. Recently, a nearby private island resort started buying mats and handicrafts from them, and the group plans to expand this initiative once they have received their business registration. Additionally, a few women have represented the group at the women’s expos held in Savusavu and Suva.

Partnerships with government, commercial and other non-profit groups have been instrumental to TEWSG’s work. The group has worked with Teitei Taveuni and the Ministry of Agriculture to provide agriculture-related skills training and support. They have also formed partnerships with other women’s groups on the island such as Udukacu Skirts & Boots Women’s Group and Sekoula Women’s Group, demonstrating the shared responsibility and collective effort in empowering women in the community.

 

Challenges and the way forward

Nanise said that one of the challenges they face on the island is the limited transportation options. Buses only operate a few times a day. The group has adapted to this by scheduling meetings and trainings according to the bus schedule to accommodate participants travelling from different parts of the island. However, since receiving funding, the group has been able to hire vehicles for some project activities.

Peniana Bale and Emele Botei, two of the pioneer members of TEWSG, said that although the group had been offering various types of training over the years, participants often struggled to continue practising their newly acquired skills due to a lack of post-training support and proper equipment. This situation underscores the importance of complementing skills training with ongoing support and access to the necessary resources for the long-term success of women’s economic empowerment efforts. The group has addressed this to some extent by supplying equipment and other resources to participants for activities like beekeeping, floriculture and backyard gardening. As Peniana emphasised, women are more inclined to participate in these initiatives when they can see tangible progress and outcomes.

Over the past year, the women of TEWSG have made significant progress in revitalising their organisation, which has been serving the community for over a decade. They have established new partnerships and expanded the range of income-generating activities for their members and the groups they serve. As the group’s visibility and reputation has grown, they have experienced a surge in interest from women across the island who are keen to join the group. This interest has led the group to initiate discussions about amending their Constitution to accommodate the growing number of potential members and to ensure that the organisation can effectively meet the needs of its expanding community.

 

About the project

Women’s Fund Fiji provides sustainability grants to support programs and projects that enhance gender equality in Fiji. In June 2023, Taveuni Empowerment of Women Support Group received a grant to support their work under the Fund’s thematic area ‘women’s economic empowerment’. This project is funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.