A TOTAL of 940 participants from Sorokoba district in Ba received certificates under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).
The group is one of the largest number of people to graduate from the Fiji National University this year.
According to FNU, a total of 534 women and 406 men graduated during a ceremony at Sorokoba Village after successfully completing 14 courses under the program.
While congratulating the graduates, Minister for Local Government Parveen Kumar encouraged the certificate holders to help in contributing to the development of their communities.
“This year, however, with the carnage left by Tropical Cyclone Winston, participants will have to put their skills learnt to good use and provide all necessary assistance to homeowners wherever their skill sets may be applied.”
He said following TC Winston, many homeowners in Sorokoba and Bukuya had received their house building materials but lacked skilled technicians or tradesmen or the finance to hire them to begin reconstructing of their homes.
Mr Kumar said the government initiative went in line with reducing the socio-economic disparity between the poor and rich, the rural and the urban.
“This is where this two-week training program, be it the wooden house construction, or domestic electrical installation, or household and sanitary plumbing, will come in greatly handy,” Mr Kumar said.
“All Fijians through the proper and sustainable use of land resources are being and will be assisted with planned and cleverly-funded livelihood programs and the SLP project is one of the means to achieve this.”
