A Women in Fisheries Forum in Hopkins village earlier this week brought together up to 60 different women from various fishing communities across the country. And they have now formed an association with the help of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The two day forum that took place on the 17th and 18th of June focused on their concerns as fisherwomen and value added producers. We spoke to the coordinator today:
Ralna Lamb Lewis, Assistant country director, WCS
"So this year we had the seventh forum and the focus this year was to form the national women in fisheries association we've been having it for six years so far well this being the seventh one and at the last forum we had the women who were focused on us forming an association right because over the past years we've been meeting for them to discuss whatever issues they've been facing how they want to move the sector forward what type of interventions are they proposing, but they've decided that in order for them to really have impactful change on the sector to be apart of the management decisions it's time for them to form an association."
"What this association is designed to do is to get those persons involved and get them to be a part of the decision making process because for the most part those persons are women who play a part in you know in the majority of those additional roles within the sector."
"So some of the discussions really focused on what type of additional support can be provided to them because like I said these women are also involved in other aspects other livelihood measures that revolve around the coastal areas so they are looking at what type of support group we can provide in terms of tourism to get them ready up and ready. We have some of the home stay groups from Sarteneja how they can be fully registered and being apart of that, that aspect of generating that income then we have women wanting to see how we can provide other type of skills training for them as well you know the younger persons within their communities who might want to transition from fishing into other service industries maybe like in tourism and so on. So those are some of the concerns but also in terms of you know just their capacity and strengthening their capacity and seeking out funding for the groups that they are coming from within their communities so those are different avenues they are engaged in that they would like us to support them with."
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