CANADIAN FUND CONTINUES NOFOTANE PROJECT

​Assistance for the sustainable income generation & self-employment of nofotane women in Smaoa continued with funding support from the Canadian Government under its Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) program.
 
Through the High Commissioner of Canada in New Zealand, a total of CAD30,000 has been granted to Samoa Victim Support Group, to continue its support for the newly self-employed nofotane women.  These were the unemployed nofotane women who have been economically empowered under the 2-year project recently completed by SVSG and the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality.
 
Prior to the completion of the project with UN Women FGE, SVSG knew that it needs donor partners to assist with the sustainability of the project in the short term.  Despite the lack of support from local donor agencies, SVSG continued to seek assistance from international donor partners. 
 
The 6-months project with the CFLI will see nofotane earners from the UN Women FGE project, encouraged to continue with their small business ventures through self-esteem workshops, mentorship with village representatives, women to women support networks, opening savings accounts, and linkages to local and overseas markets.  There will be 16 workshops conducted for the nofotane earners with inspirational speakers attending each of the sessions to further boost the nofotane women’s confidence.

And to ensure that its programs continued to be representative of the interests of the direct beneficiaries, trainers for the self esteem workshops have been recruited from the star earners themselves.  These are nofotane women who have not only being trained as advocates for the economic empowerment of women in Samoa, but have also become succuessful entrepreneur since attending the Nofotane Project with UN Women FGE.
 
Exciting times are ahead for the nofotane earners, as SVSG continues to seek out funding to support the sustainability of their new business ventures.  In the meantime, SVSG acknowledges the funding support from the Canadian Government through Nicolas Sabourin, High Commissioner of Canada in Wellington New Zealand, without which, SVSG will not be able to continue supporting the economically empowerment nofotane women.