UN women programme completes first phase of awareness

THE United Nations Women programme is celebrating the completion of the first stage of its Meri project to reduce Covid-19 cases in markets and increase the vendors’ earning power.
Programme coordinator Brenda Andrias said the project was funded by Australian government for K2.5 million and rolled out in 14 markets around the country.
Phase two of the project will be rolled out in nine more markets in the country over the next two years at a cost of K3 million.
“We achieved a lot in the past six months. We (impressed) on the women the need to be clean and how (to use) the market (facilities,” she said. “We are going to build on what we achieved in phase one.
“We are going to do Covid-19 response and long-term governance support to market management, growers, vendors, as well as the buyers on what it means to manage a market.
“We will be looking at capacity building through financial management, for management and employees of the market, especially those looking after market revenue.
“We are also going to (provide) more support to vendors by building the capacity of vendors association through training.” Andrias said they would guide vendors on how to progress into small-to-medium enterprise activities through skills training and support.
“We want to build an economic environment in the market, building their skills of livelihood training, food handling and grooming, which makes the market attractive from being unhygienic places to very exciting and fun places to go to.”