Train, strengthen, and promote economic empowerment and food security.
Women's economic empowerment is a prerequisite for enhancing the quality of life of women, their families, and communities, and the nation at large. In the last decade, it has been recognized as a key tool for breaking the cycle of poverty and stimulating a spiral of increased investment in women that can result in multiple and inter-sectoral advancement. The United Nations Millennium Declaration, for example, emphasized the importance of gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger, and disease. In the same vein, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included gender equity and women's empowerment as central to progress in health, education, and poverty reduction. However, this global commitment hasn't translated fully to the lives of displaced women. Many displaced women face a harsh reality. Limited skills, restricted access to education, and persistent discrimination leave them feeling powerless to improve their situation. Like many forcibly displaced people, they struggle with poverty, social exclusion, and even abuse in their new environments.
TRAINWEE provides multifaceted vocational training and skills development in diverse domains coupled with microfinance to help women jumpstart their businesses, a holistic approach that fosters self-esteem, their wellbeing, and the economic stability of their homes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the attitudes and needs of women are generally not considered, and that the specific vulnerabilities and security concerns faced by displaced women are often overlooked, as family and community betterment are considered to be one and the same for men and women. The net result for displaced women participating in mixed gender training and empowerment programs is a continuation of gender-based marginalization, and upholding of the societal norms and gender roles that the programs are trying to help displaced populations to overcome. TRAINWEE is composed of two components, the vocational, entrepreneurship and financial literacy training, and the microfinance, business support, and networking components.
Vocational, Entrepreneurship, and Financial Literacy Training: Evidence suggests that the majority of displaced women have low literacy level but are able to thrive in other non-academic professions such as soap making, restaurants, hairdressing, sewing, and farming. TRAINWEE provides insights into each vocational domain, empowers women with realistic business models, and financial management solutions to ensure beneficiary women gain insights into the empowerment ecosystem. TRAINWEE engages beneficiaries to enhance eco-friendly initiatives, overcome barriers, particularly barriers faced by displaced women, and prioritize food security as an integral part of training, empowerment, and wellbeing.
Microfinance, Business Support, and Networking: Personal savings for displaced persons, particularly women, are often too meager or unavailable to invest in higher return activities, and the use of credit is either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. Increased access to credit for the poor, and especially for poor women, result in significantly higher income and greater asset building. As such, providing credit and investment opportunities for women who are heads of households will help their coping strategies move from day-to-day survival to investment in a sustainable and hopeful future. Training and enhancing women's access to and control over economic resources improve their capacity to use these resources to improve their own and their household's or family's well-being. TRAINWEE provides microfinance to displaced women groups and deserving individuals through partnering with pre-existing microfinance institutions (MFI) or credit NGOs or in areas where no such organizations exist, through directly setting up and facilitating savings and credit groups. The project also monitors and supports beneficiaries to maximize their potential and gains as well as build and leverage a network to share experiences.
The Atem Foundation Resource and Empowerment Center provides the conducive environment needed to train and empower women and other beneficiaries of the TRAINWEE project. Housing a training room, sewing, and hairdressing, and other handicraft training facilities, the center serves as a support system and provides the necessary resources for the accomplishment of TRAINWEE.
