Bringing rural women together

Rural women across South Canterbury have been encouraged to flourish and be fearless after attending an event in Fairlie last week.

"Fearless+Flourishing", which was held at the Fairlie Golf Course last Wednesday, was run by Beef+Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ) and the Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT).

The event was the first of its kind in South Canterbury and was attended by more than 25 people.

BLNZ Mid and South Canterbury extension manager Minna Wilson said the programme was a way to support and strengthen women in rural communities.

"It was looking at ways to give these women the tools to be bold and to be able to step out, take risks and to know themselves.

"A lot of it was around goal-setting — so what goals do we want to be setting, how do we manage that — and a big part was also around welfare."

She said it was great to team up with AWDT for the first time to deliver the programme.

"AWDT run a cohort of programs but at BLNZ we're really big on the extension we deliver.

"We like to try and deliver it locally in small towns, so that it's really accessible.

"We're very much by farmers for farmers.

"For us it was really great to be able to collaborate with the likes of AWDT and bring their world-leading programme, but bring it rurally.

"I absolutely loved it, it was one of my favourite events I’ve done."

Miss Wilson said it was important to deliver a programme tailored to rural women.

"Women are a huge part of the farming business.

"There were some older women there who talked about how they had bought land 40 years ago and talked about stepping out.

"It was really lovely to see the different generations encouraging each other.

"We had a real raft of people, people who were at the end of their career or even retired to ones that were in their early 20s.

"It was really lovely to hear women share their experiences of goal-setting, achieving their dreams and stepping out."

She said the whole day was very positive.

"It really felt like it was the community supporting each other.

"When you do things like this in a small community, you get to know who people are in a completely different way, you see the goals they have and we've got an incredible group of very talented women here.

"It was really lovely to hear people to talk about some of the things that hold them back.

"Then talking about how we can actually support one another."

The hope was to run another event in the future, she said.

"We're really wanting to look at how we can link up wider in the industry and work together."

connor.haley@timarucourier.co.nz