All ILO Voices stories
ILO Voices | Occupational safety and health
A mine doesn’t forgive mistakes
After 19 years as a miner, Ivan Katolik knows how important it is to put safety and health first. ILO training is strengthening his role in promoting workers’ voices and safer mining in Kazakhstan.
ILO Voices | Violence and harassment prevention
Technical skills should be for everyone
Md. Ziaur Rahman leads a technical training centre in Bangladesh where more women are entering non-traditional trades. Through ILO-supported initiatives, he is helping to create a safer and more inclusive learning environment.
ILO Voices | Entrepreneurship
How I built my tea stall business in Somalia
In Somalia, Hawa Ali Mohamed runs a tea stall in a marketplace that was rehabilitated through an ILO project. As the sole breadwinner, she now has a stable place to work and can support her children.
ILO Voices | Small and medium enterprise (SME) development
I put my workers at the centre of my business
Gjergj Leqejza is General Manager of a textile business in Albania. Through the ILO’s SCORE Programme, the business improved productivity and increased wages for its workers.
ILO Voices | Rights at work
A voice for women cotton workers in Pakistan
Former child labourer Hafeeza Mai leads a trade union in Pakistan, empowering women in the cotton sector to claim their rights, demand equal pay and protect their children from child labour.
ILO Voices | Digital skills for youth
Digital skills revived my mother’s food business and our family bond
Rafael Meza is a student from Colombia, one of more than 60,000 young people who are benefitting from the ILO-supported SENATIC project. Through the programme, he is learning digital marketing skills that are helping him boost his mother’s food...
ILO Voices | Small and medium-sized enterprises
From family workshop to global kitchens: My journey of transformation and growth
I manage a kitchenware manufacturing business in Yongkang. In the past, our company struggled and we faced bankruptcy. With the support of China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and the ILO SCORE Training methodology designed to help small and...
ILO Voices | Disability inclusion
I discovered the SPARK within me to promote disability inclusion
My name is Lata Korde. I work as a disability inclusion facilitator in Maharashtra, India. This work is important to me. Having a disability myself, I want to ensure that people like me are recognized and included in society.
ILO Voices | Women's leadership and equal pay
Our fish-processing cooperative has empowered women and earned them recognition and safety
I come from a family of fishers in Senegal. My mother was a fish processor, and I discovered the trade through her at a young age. Life was challenging and I wasn’t able to finish school right away, but I’ve always carried the spirit of a leader....
ILO Voices | Women's entrepreneurship
Between Spain and Morocco, I built my independence
After years of working in seasonal agriculture in Spain, Fatima Laanieg took part in the ILO’s WAFIRA project, learning how to manage a business. Now, she runs her own grocery store in Morocco while continuing to work abroad for part of the year.
ILO Voices | Care economy
Our community now sees the value of care work
Yoraima Cristina Navarro Izquierdo is an Arhuaco leader and founder of Josa Peace Builders, an association of women weavers in Colombia. An ILO project has provided training on economic autonomy and recognizing care work, and is helping Yoraima and...
Voices story | Labour market data
How my data collection work empowers Ghana’s farmers
Kalian Sampoa Gumah shares a day in her life as a survey enumerator in Ghana, collecting data from farming households and farm workers to inform employment policies and empower rural communities.
ILO Voices | Child labour
A savings group helped me to keep my children in school
Rebecca Nakayega Wandegge is a farm labourer, market vendor and mother of eight from Uganda. Through the ILO's ACCEL Africa project, she has learnt financial literacy and improved agricultural practices, which have helped her to keep her children...
ILO Voices | Rural economy
I am reviving patchouli farming in Aceh, Indonesia
In Indonesia, the ILO’s Promise II Impact project is facilitating access to digital financial services and financial training. The goal is to help small and medium-sized enterprises — like that of patchouli oil producer Teuku Razuan — build...
ILO Voices | Women's empowerment
Our artisanal craft empowers us
Fátima Laine Sousa Santos lives in Piauí, Brazil, in a community which farms carnauba palm trees. Thanks to an ILO project aimed at promoting decent work, she has gained financial stability by developing the skills to work as an artisanal carnauba...
ILO Voices | Refugee access to work
Recognition of my skills brought me new hope for the future
Celestin Mbaruku is a tailor and tailoring trainer in Nairobi, Kenya. As a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he lacked access to formal employment until his skills were certified by the Government of Kenya’s Recognition of Prior...
ILO Voices | Women in management
Through my business, I see the value of investing in women
Linda Ampah is founder and CEO of a garment manufacturing company employing around 400 people, in Accra, Ghana. Recent improvements in productivity and working conditions at her factory have benefitted both workers and the business.
ILO Voices | Disability inclusion
I faced my hardships, and it made me stronger
Leena Penildas Thatkuras was injured during the civil conflict in Sri Lanka, which left her with a permanent disability. She now runs a sewing business and supplements her income by driving a three-wheeler for hire adapted for people who use...
ILO Voices | Care economy
Workplace childcare facilities allowed me to thrive
Meseret Tamru, an employee in a garment factory in Ethiopia, had to stop working when she had children. An ILO-supported childcare centre at her workplace has allowed her to return to employment and helped contribute to the family finances.
ILO Voices | Social protection
A social protection benefit transformed our daily lives
Astou Gningue, a mother of 10 children living in Senegal, sells fruit and other products to support her family. A social protection benefit has helped her to support her family’s basic needs when she could not work and enabled her to grow her...