Small grants to help projects benefitting women and girls |13 July 2018

Three small projects aimed at building the capacity and supporting initiatives  that will enhance the lives of women and girls are benefitting from small grants from the Seychelles Women Trust Fund.

Yesterday two of the three women leading the projects were present during a short ceremony at Ceps meeting room, Orion Mall, to sign documents for the award of the grants and present their projects.

This was in the presence of the chairperson of the Seychelles Women Trust Fund, Peggy Vidot, as well as other members.

The three projects are:

(i) Women custodian of our Eco System by the Seychelles Institute of Arts and Design (SIAD) led by Christine Payet, the head of SIAD. This project received a grant of R40,000.

Presenting the project Mrs Payet explained that it was to design and produce 500 cotton shopping bags to be sold to generate funds for the institution while engaging in community initiatives as well as support the government in its effort to conserve the environment and promote a new culture of generating funds as well as create awareness on the use of eco-friendly products. 

“With the current restriction on the importation of plastic bags, women and  housewives must undoubtedly seek alternative solutions whenever they go shopping and every household need shopping bags,” Mrs Payet said.

(ii) A study to explore the basis on which schemes of service for female dominated professions are determined with Marie Thérèse Purvis as principal investigator. The project received R103,000.

Presenting the project Mrs Purvis explained that it was an initiative of the Ceps Commission for Gender Rights and Governance together with the Commission for Professional organisations.

Mrs Purvis went on to explain that while the Constitution and the Employment Act provide for women and men to have equal pay for work that is the same, we find that deeply held traditional beliefs and attitudes about the types of work appropriate for women and men and the perceived importance of occupations where men and women are dominant have led to bias, often unconsciously, which have an impact on the value of their occupation and roles.

“We thought it would be a good idea to investigate a little further since no such study has ever been done here to investigate the basis on which pay is determined,” Mrs Purvis said, noting that they will focus on the public service sector’s full time employees to start with.

(iii) Women work your way Project by the Seychelles Women and Sports association led by Delta Ward Horner. It is a project to train a trainer to help women to defend themselves from violence in sports.

The Seychelles Women Trust Fund was set up in 2011 under the Public Finances Act S.I 46 of 2011. Its motto is ‘Believing in our women’.

Its main objectives are to mobilise resources, build capacity, and support programmes that enhance the lives of women and girls in Seychelles.

Since 2014, the Trust Fund has been advertising bids for individuals or institutions to apply for grants. In 2017 four applicants submitted their projects and three of them met the criteria for the grants.