June 29, 2021
By Audrey John
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs in their women empowerment project for touristic and coastal communities with support from UNDP has distributed start-up kits to 100 (one hundred) women in Kent and Banana Island at Kent community Hall, Western Area rural.
Explaining the overview of the project, Tourist Officer of the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Haja Njai said the project is aimed at putting alternative livelihood skills into these women.
She noted that they have trained these women on arts and crafts and entrepreneurship skills for which the minister was at the event to give them business start-up kits.
She said they do not want to replace the fishing and stone mining that the women are engaged in, but to provide them with skills that can suffice when their fishing and stone mining are not yielding dividend.
In her address, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt said she was excited to see the women that were trained by the ministry, and that they were at Kent to see what the women are doing with regards arts and crafts and also distribute additional start-up materials to 100 women from both Kent and Banana Island in order to sharpen their skills.
She assured the women that more women would benefit in subsequent programmes implemented by the ministry. She said the ministry has been to Pujehun, Bonthe, Mattru Jong, Kamakwie and Kabala but women of Kent and Banana Island occupy a special place because they are the first recipient.
She mentioned that the Covid-19 has imposed enormous hardship on the tourism sector because of the various restrictions imposed on people and travel, but the ministry has done a lot in cushioning the burden on women in the tourism sector, she said.
She called on the women to get the sector going by keeping the environment intact. She disclosed that there are plans to encourage more hotels in Kent and that for Banana Island the ministry is constructing eco-lodges and other facilities and also getting a jetty for Banana Island.
Chairladies from both Kent and Banana Island thanked the Minister for the support, assuring that they will make the most of the opportunity.