THE historical vaivai or raintree that nestles and shelters houses in the village of Kese serves as a beam of hope for the women of Kese.
The trademark of the village has withstood hurricanes and the strongest Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.
And in their dire need to keep the village running, the women of Kese from the tikina of Naviti in the Yasawa archipelago formed the Kese women’s group.
Sainimere Voli, the group leader, laments about how the tree has motivated the women to keep moving and keep providing.
“The tree gives us shade when the weather is hot and has been standing from several decades back and that is what the women’s group’s motto is too, to give hope to the villagers when the village is in distress and to be strong for our children and husbands,” she said.
The Yasawa Group is situated along the path of every hurricane or cyclone that hits Fiji and even faced the brunt of the Category 5 storm last year.
“Coconuts, our main source of income, and a few of the items donated to us by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and food were destroyed,” she said.
The women’s group’s bond strengthened and continued from what little they had left until Vinaka Fiji flew to their aid with the supply of a nursery.
The Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with Vinaka Fiji, also assisted the village food bank of Kese with the provision of seedlings.
Vinaka Fiji works directly with the Yasawa Island communities so that villagers are involved in determining their needs, participate in the planning and implementation of projects.
One of its main focus is working on community emergency preparedness projects where they empower communities to be self-reliant after a disaster, therefore, setting up food banks which Kese Village is a recipient of the project.
The women’s group has, under their motherly wings, the food bank of the village which now feeds the villagers and supplies the local hotels namely Korovou Eco Lodge, the White Sandy Beach and Barefoot Manta.
“The revenue collected from the food sale is deposited into the group account and saved for events or emergencies,” said Sainimere.
“Communal work is every Wednesday and this is the day we converge and tend to our food garden. It’s all hands on deck for the ladies.”
Water is a problem on the island but the women have navigated through their routine daily, making use of a borehole and filling up drums when water opening hours in the village commences.
The second phase of assistance came when the Extension Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, through its cottage industry program, visited the island to conduct training on virgin coconut oil (VCO) and by-products.
“The training enlightened us on the importance of the various parts of a coconut tree and we were taught various things that could be obtained from coconuts,” she said.
It was after this training and during the mini show that the women decided to venture into business.
“We had trainings brought to us and through this VCO training, we have come to realise the importance of coconuts and how to make by-products from it,” she said.
The women made VCO, soaps, baskets, fans, necklaces and produced newly learnt by-products namely massage oil, vinegar, charcoal and coconut tea.
The ministry’s agriculture technical officer (Lautoka/Yasawa), Kalesi Domolailai, said the training aimed to enhance the skills of the producers, adding it was also an opportune time for producers to network and share ideas in terms of marketing.
“The main commodity here in Naviti is coconut and the women are doing VCO at a very small scale,” Kalesi said.
The training was conducted in Kese Village and attended by 50 women participants.
The training also provided an opportunity for the women to network with producers such as Niu Source Fiji, a VCO sole proprietor belonging to the Vumainabuke family of Vuda Point and others.
* Serenia Vilele is employed at the Ministry of Agriculture.
