Awareness training sessions were run at Suva, Nausori, Nadi, Rakiraki and Labasa Markets

A market vendor has stressed the importance of first aid training which was beneficial for her in the long run.

Suva Market vendor 38-year-old Emele Dituranga says: “The training was very good because I learnt something that I don’t know – that’s very important to me.”

Ms Dituranga who sells root crops, fruits and vegetables for the last seven years is one of the vendors involved in a pilot Market For Change project organised by the United Nations Women and the Fiji Red Cross Society.

For the first time vendors last week took part in the training with topics ranging from what to do in the event of choking, seizures, heart attacks and how to administer first response treatment for poisoning.

The pilots were a request from Fiji Market Vendor Associations who identified the need for first aid training based on previous health and safety-related incidents at their markets.

If enough interest is generated from the pilots, full training courses may be run in 2017. The sessions were run at Suva, Nausori, Nadi, Rakiraki and Labasa Markets.

UN Women representative at the Fiji Multi-Country office, Aleta Miller says: “The initiative demonstrates a strengthened capacity of Fiji Market Vendor Associations in representing the interests of market vendors in creating safer work and community environments.

“Women who comprise up to 90 per cent of market vendors in the Pacific will benefit from these skills in all facets of their lives.”

The goal of the Markets for Change project is to ensure that marketplaces are environments where women feel safe and are free from discrimination, where their voices are heard and are taken into account at the decision-making level.

Vendor Ms Dituranga being a woman in business said: “Sounds good to me, because I’ll be my own boss and I know what to buy and what to do…that means it’s my own. A lot of profit I get from selling, I will (support) my family with.”

Since it’s launch in April 2014 the Markets for Change project has worked with the Fiji Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Environment, 10 municipal councils, Non Goevrnment Oragnisations, private sector partners, and market vendors themselves, to strengthen marketplace governance in Suva, Nausori, Rakiraki, Ba, Labasa, Lautoka, Nadi, Sigatoka and Tavua.

Kelera Qiolevu (49) from Nausorimarket said: “We can help our family too, even though our husbands are there…to be a business women, I can support myself, I help my children and my family.”

Kelera was looking forward to the first aid awareness training, because past UN Women trainings have been valuable to her in both her work and private life.

Source: UN Women

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