The Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Protection has set an ambitious goal to graduate 500 individuals from the family assistance scheme into sustainable livelihoods next year.

This bold initiative seeks to empower recipients and break the cycle of dependence on welfare programs.

Minister Lynda Tabuya announced the target while outlining the ministry’s accomplishments and policy adjustments implemented in 2023.

She emphasized the success of a pilot program that equipped ten individuals residing in HART homes and single mothers reliant on welfare with the skills to pursue new career paths.

Tabuya says these ten participants underwent a twelve-week program at the Australian Pacific Technical College, emerging with Engineer Certificate Level One qualifications.

“So they will now be graduating from the program. So we hope to achieve up to 500 in the coming year. So it’s really the ministry’s mission and goals for the coming year to graduate our people from welfare to well-being, from poverty to productivity, and we just want to put our people to work.”

Tabuya says one of the changes this year was to ensure that there is an expiration date for people on the poverty benefit scheme.

There are over 96,000 people in the various social protection programs.