COMMUNITIES Disaster Preparedness and Response project carried out by the Matavale Women’s Association, MWA, has expanded to Small Malaita constituency in Malaita Province.
The expansion was the result of positive results the project has had for more than two thousand women and girls in West Makira Constituency this year.
The project in Small Malaita was funded by the Australian Government through U-Women’s “Women’s Resilience to Disasters” WRD.
Recently, more than sixty men, women and girls in ward 22 of Small Malaita constituency, in Malaita Province have attended two soils improvement training at Fouele and Sa’a.
Following the trainings women and girls are now able to produce enough food to feed their families in the face of ever increasing negative effects of climate change.
The trainings consist of indoor classes and demonstrations on various ways to improve poor soil fertility such as composting, mulching and crop rotation.
The women and girls were also taught on crop management from planting to harvesting, seed selection and preservation and pest control using biological methods.
Information booklets and tools were also provided to participants under the project to enable them continue with their vegetable gardening after the project is completed.
The Matavale Women’s Association has been conducting trainings and demonstrations for women since last year in West Makira constituency and are now expanding the program to Small Malaita.
Forty women and three men attended the training at Fouele while twenty-one women and two men attended the training at Sa’a.
This would be the first of three other agriculture trainings to be conducted in Small Malaita constituency. The other two will be held in wards 21 and 23 next year.
Tools and seedlings were also supplied as part of the program to enable women start their own vegetable farms applying knowledge gained from the training.
The training has been described by a number of women as an eye opener for them and an important training as women are now facing poor crop yields because of poor soil fertility and a result of the negative effects of climate change.
The purpose of the project component is to enable women acquire new agricultural skills to be resilient against the effects of natural disasters.
The next component in which the Matavale Women’s Association will be involved in is the training of women in entrepreneurial skills to be able to manage and run businesses and cooperatives of which the profits will be saved to be used during times of disasters in providing relief supplies and doing assessments of natural disasters when they happen.
The entrepreneurial Skills training will be for 15 women in ward 22 of Small Malaita after which they will be supported to establish small business ventures.
Another component of the project is to established women-led community-based disaster committees where mechanisms and systems will be developed to be applied during times of disasters.
PRESS RELEASE
