Pacific Stories For UNFCCC IWD 7 March 2014
Rural Women Light up their Villages in Fiji
Women, girls, boys and men have different roles within their families and communities in Pacific Island
Countries. Each of these groups is differently affected by, and has distinct ways of dealing with, the effects of climate change. Women’s separate role in communities, however, means that they can play an important part in supporting their families and communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Women have valuable knowledge and skills which they can use when given the opportunity. UN Women is working with governments and partners to empower women through training as solar engineers.
Overcoming social barriers such as illiteracy and other language barriers; learning skills that are traditionally male dominated; venturing out of their comfort zones of rural village life overcoming the intimidation of flying out a country for the first time; 10 and grandmothers from remote rural communities around Fiji have successfully completed training to become solar engineers and have now returned and installed household solar panels for 376 homes in 12 villages around Fiji.
The participants were selected under the ‘Rural Women Light up the Pacific’ Programme between
Barefoot College, UN Women, and Global Environmental Facility’s Small Grants Programme and supported on the ground by the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network. The programme selected women based on the criteria of being grandmothers, and either illiterate or semi-illiterate. The women are all from remote rural communities that do not have access to the national electricity grid. They are selected on these criteria because older women are some of the poorest members of their community; and they are the most likely to remain in their villages to continue to work as engineers, increasing the sustainability of programme outcomes. By showing what older and less educated women can achieve, the solar engineers provide an example to other women in beneficiary
Women, girls, boys and men have different roles within their families and communities in Pacific Island
Countries. Each of these groups is differently affected by, and has distinct ways of dealing with, the effects of climate change. Women’s separate role in communities, however, means that they can play an important part in supporting their families and communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Women have valuable knowledge and skills which they can use when given the opportunity. UN Women is working with governments and partners to empower women through training as solar engineers.
Overcoming social barriers such as illiteracy and other language barriers; learning skills that are traditionally male dominated; venturing out of their comfort zones of rural village life overcoming the intimidation of flying out a country for the first time; 10 and grandmothers from remote rural communities around Fiji have successfully completed training to become solar engineers and have now returned and installed household solar panels for 376 homes in 12 villages around Fiji.
The participants were selected under the ‘Rural Women Light up the Pacific’ Programme between
Barefoot College, UN Women, and Global Environmental Facility’s Small Grants Programme and supported on the ground by the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network. The programme selected women based on the criteria of being grandmothers, and either illiterate or semi-illiterate. The women are all from remote rural communities that do not have access to the national electricity grid. They are selected on these criteria because older women are some of the poorest members of their community; and they are the most likely to remain in their villages to continue to work as engineers, increasing the sustainability of programme outcomes. By showing what older and less educated women can achieve, the solar engineers provide an example to other women in beneficiary