Women from Hunanawa, Hautahe and Ha’atanasi communities in East Are’Are, Malaita Province recently  received training on gender, leadership and climate change.

The training was facilitated by Ella Kauhue  and Belinda Arapa’asi.  

Recognizing the crucial role of women as leaders in their community, the training ws to build their capacity  and to empower them to stand strong in their communities with dignity and confidence. 

 Men leaders from the three communities have also participated in the workshop.
Their participation is important because they have been supporting the work of women leaders in these communities for sometime now. 
This is also about men acknowledging the work of women leaders in the community and recognizing them as the “corner stone” of their homes and their community.  

When men can understand women and their position in the community, it will bring forth respect, women’s rights to leadership and that sense of leadership as a shared responsibility.

The project also seeks to amplify the voices of the Hunanawa Women’s Association on Gender, Leadership and Climate Change.  

Women have acquired important  knowledge on climate change resilience, their ability to cope and to recover as well as  empowering them to understand the negative impacts of climate change and the way it affect women and girls in Solomon Islands and especially in the community.  

Participants were able to share with each other their experiences and traditional knowledge as “stewards of many natural resources and especially women who can manage resources better in times of hardships and difficulties.

The training is supported by the Australian Government and its good people through the Australia Solomon Islands Partnerships Program.

By Ella Kauhue

Honiara