Vunato women empowered by community pillars of recycling capacity building workshop
Atotal of five non-government organisations partnered for a three-day workshop from March 6-8 to educate women from the Vunato settlement in Lautoka in the lead-up to International Women’s day today.
The workshop hosted 20 women from the ages of 20 to 65 known as the Collection Pillars of Recycling (CPR) who collect recyclable items at the Vunato landfill site for the workshop held at the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND) Fiji conference room in Lautoka. Sixty-five-year-old, Asinate Lewabeka was one of the women that took part in the training.
“I am thankful that the CPR informed us about the training which was held yesterday and today, I am very grateful for this training because the women were actually taught about the various forms of cancer that we women are at risk of getting and also men,” she said. Fiji Cancer Society (FCS) representative Shweta Kapoor said the NGO was organizing the workshop with day one focused on cancer education where the FCS presented on breast, cervical, and prostate cancer signs and symptoms as well as prevention and the referral pathway.
“Day two is on Skin Clinic from Twomey Hospital and diabetes Fiji, they’re presenting on the different types of NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) and because these are very vulnerable groups, they’re more than often discriminated against and disadvantaged from accessing medical services,” she said.
“Skin Clinic we’ll be doing their presentation since they are waste pickers, so they face different kinds of situations and are exposed to different kinds of conditions.”