Child labour

Qauia women benefit from ILO business training

An initiative of ILO’s MAP16 child labour project.

News | 07 June 2022
Contact(s): yeev@ilo.org
Women from the Qauia community at the closing of the 4 week training programme in Suva, Fiji.
SUVA, Fiji (ILO News) – Women have influential roles in communities and in homes by ensuring that children attend school and remain in school. Women are agents of change and continue to create innovative enabling environments for livelihood opportunities.

A 4 week-long business training programme for fifteen women of the Qauia Community in Lami, Fiji was organized by the ILO Country Office for Pacific Island Countries within the MAP16 project, as part of interventions to eliminate child labour in Fiji. The ILO hopes this initiative will strengthen social and economic empowerment and enhance participants capacity to be able to become successful women entrepreneurs. The training programme was facilitated by Greenhouse Coworking. The training sessions includes such topics as “Our children and our household dynamics (values, communication change)”, Business ideation and analysis.

Ms Taufa Qoro St. John who completed the training said, “I have been running business through the COVID-19 lockdown, I was getting good money, but this training has now provided me with what was missing, the foundation to strengthen and improve my business.”

Director, ILO Pacific, Matin Karimli listens to Qauia community leader Ms. Taufa Qoro St. John , Suva, Fiji.
At the closing of the training programme ILO Director for Pacific Islands Countries, Matin Karimli said “ILO will continue to support women led businesses in the informal economy. And we hope to see empowering success stories from the participants as they continue to grow and sustain their businesses. We are able to change the life of one person, this is what matters most.”

Participants gather for a group photo, Suva, Fiji.
ILO MAP16 Project Officer, Victoria Yee said “The business training is a piloted one which centred on creating enabling opportunities for women in the informal sector. We hope that the training will create income opportunities which will result in families being able to meet their social and economic needs.”

Note for editor: The World Day Against Child labour is observed on June 12 and the theme for 2022 is Universal Social Protection to End child labour. More than 160 million children worldwide – 1 in 10 children aged 5-17 – are still engaged in child labour, and progress has stalled since 2016. These trends were present even before the COVID-19 crisis. It is estimated that without mitigation strategies, the number of children in child labour could rise by 8.9 million by the end of 2022, due to higher poverty and increased vulnerability.
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This initiative is implemented and supported by the US Department of Labour funded - MAP16 ILO project. The project contributes to the promotion of decent work in Fiji by contributing to the elimination of child labour and worst forms of child labour with support from the Ministry of Employment, Productivity, and Industrial Relations, Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation and Fiji Trade Union Congress. The project further aims to assist Fiji in its capacity as a Pathfinder country and to contribute to achieving SDG 8.7.
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For further information please contact:

Victoria Yee
MAP16 Senior Programme Asst,
ILO Country Office for Pacific Island Countries
T: +679 9373896
E: yeev@ilo.org