Community Livelihoods & Micro-Enterprise

Skill without a market keeps a family poor. Our livelihoods program takes the crafts and produce that island households already make well and builds the commercial ground underneath them: pricing that covers real costs, simple written records, quality and packaging standards, and cooperative arrangements so that ten small producers can meet an order that none of them could fill alone.

Training is delivered in Bislama in the village, never in a hotel conference room. A twelve-week cycle covers costing and pricing, savings discipline, market access, food safety and post-harvest handling, and business recovery planning for the cyclone season — a reality every Vanuatu enterprise must plan around.

Senikau does not lend money and does not take equity in any participant's business. Where credit is genuinely needed we refer producers to licensed Vanuatu institutions and sit with them through the application so the terms are understood before anything is signed.

How to take part

Member communities apply through their committee delegate; individuals may apply directly by calling the Port Vila office or completing the volunteer and assistance form on our contact page. Intakes are announced at the annual assembly and posted at partner schools, churches and market houses. Where places are limited, priority goes to applicants from communities not served in the previous cycle.

Reporting

Each program cycle produces a written report covering participation, expenditure against budget, participant feedback and what will change next cycle. Reports are tabled at the annual assembly and published in our governance and transparency section.