Workshop at Honiara Central Market

Women work with facilitator from the International Labor
Organization that provided reflective entrepreneurship basics. 

A couple of weeks ago we did a workshop with Market women in Honiara. The focus was on basic entrepreneurship training with a Trust-building component. The Honiara Central Market has people from all around the country selling their products and reselling food stuffs. The majority of the people are from Guadacanal and Malaita, and while a good portion of the people are farmers selling their own crops, the second largest number are re-selling other farmers goods or onions/garlic/cabbage, etc. from boats from other countries. The Market also features many other products, as you may remember from my post about a tour of the Market. 

Playing a game - always important to laugh.

Many of the women at the Market have been affected by the "tensions" or are continued to be affected by the issues of living as squatters or surviving domestic violence in their homes, or dealing with the day to day conflict that arises in the Market or violence at the hands of pickpocketers or drunk people hanging around. There are challenges with how prices are set and competition between vendors - although this is one of the most laid-back Markets I've ever been to. All and all the workshop was an attempt to bring people together, give them some useful skills and build relationships between people. It is hoped to be a pilot. 

Women create a drawing and diagram of "a market built on
trust" to identify what needs to be improved and their role.

Overall we received fabulous feedback from the group. For many it was their first ever workshop and they were happy and honored to be accepted. They all reported having learned from the experience and that they were already applying their knowledge and telling friends. Most of them wanted it to be longer (I've never been a part of a workshop when that wasn't the feedback). Examining and thinking about how to build trust amongst their peers and communities was an important take-away for them and they all hoped others could experience the workshop. We hope it will be possible to continue to hone the workshop, working with other UN bodies and organizations to ensure we are providing what Market vendors most request. 

It was fun! And that's one of the most important parts. Lots of laughter was shared and I certainly learned a lot from this fabulous group of women.   

Group shot. Always have to get one,