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Meet Ellen Jemimah Paieke

Ellen Jemimah Paieke is a project manager at Matavale Women’s Association (MWA), an organization aimed at promoting peace and gender equality in the Solomon Islands. In 2010, as local food prices and the consumption of imported junk food rose in the capital, Honiara, she started to encourage women in her suburb, Matavale, to plant their own fruits and vegetables, leading to the creation of MWA three years later, in 2013.

Ellen’s organization is implementing food security projects and supporting women to produce crops that will be stored to face hunger during the critical weeks after cyclones. MWA also trains women in rural areas to run profitable businesses and supports local communities to set up Community Disaster Committees to learn about weather conditions on a weekly basis.

Together with Donackly Bune from Santo Sunset Women’s Environment Network (SSWEN), Ellen and MWA staff will visit some communities in Vanuatu to get first-hand information on SSWEN’s priority areas of intervention, such as women’s role in food security, community engagement, and disaster preparedness and response. Both CSOs will conduct field visits to exchange good practices on project implementation and financial management.