FWRM’s Young Women Leadership Programme Heads To The Northern Division

20/07/2024

Seventeen young women representatives from the northern division have now joined the tenth cohort of FWRM’s flagship young women’s programme, the Emerging Leaders Forum.

In its launch today in Labasa, FWRM conducted the orientation workshop for the ELF 10 group whose members are for the first time since the inception of the programme in 2003, all recruited from the northern division.

ELF is a transformative leadership training targeted towards young women between the ages of 18 to 25 facilitated by FWRM's Intergenerational Women in Leadership Programme team. The tenth cohort is supported by Women’s Fund Fiji.

“Young women face multiple layers of discrimination due to their age, gender and abilities. They are often neglected and lack the support to raise their opinions and address issues that affect them. We are excited to extend the ELF programme in the northern division and the direction that ELF has undertaken in ensuring that young women are able to access feminist leadership training in the north and other divisions as well,” FWRM Executive Director, Nalini Singh said.

Ms Singh said the ELF programme provides the tools, skills and knowledge to share and address issues that are important to members of the cohorts and how to critically analyse socio-political-economic issues through a feminist and gender approach.

ELF 10 participant Winnie Feue of Rabi Island said she was excited to be a part of the cohort.

“This is my first time in such a leadership programme. I want to learn about my rights and how to speak up for other young women and help empower them to become independent and stand up for the issues they face in their communities,” she said.

Since its inception in 2002, there have been 9 successful cohorts from the ELF programme with over 120 young women graduates now working across Fiji, the Pacific and globally, some of who have continued within the feminist, human rights and civil society movements.

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