Project Summary

These two projects under the Girls for the Future aim to:

• Recruiting vulnerable women and youth girls who had dropped out of school to join and train them on business skills and record-keeping then link them up with the Institutions doing financial literacy education.
• Empower women through well-organized groups where they gain necessary skills and knowledge from those who are now pioneers of their businesses.
• Provide start-up kits to those in the apprenticeship programs after completion and also boost businesses of women who have been trained on how to manage their finances and record keeping.
• Attach the women to different institutions to acquire more knowledge and skills and gain experience in the current business world.
• Create market linkages and referrals to women with already existing businesses to earn income.
• Organizing for exchange tour visits with other institutions to know the currently trending businesses and readily available markets to the women’s products.
• Create employment opportunities in the community for other women.
• Provide psychosocial and counselling support to women and youth girls.
• Conduct reproductive health and empowerment seminars
• Support in crafting of skills work

Planned Activities

A total of young women to be empowered and undergo skills training program such as electronics, hairdressing, beauty therapy, and tailoring in which; they should proceed to industrial attachment then transitioned out of the program and start earning income to support their families’ meet basic needs.

• The women are empowered to start or expand their businesses through continuous monitoring and progressing well.
• The women start Savings and Loaning Schemes where they come together and share their experiences in businesses and be trained on financial literacy education.
• To engage other networks and linkages from different institutions, for the girls to secure jobs in which they are earning some commissions hence the ability to cater for the necessities.
• The young girls secure places on internship program as a tutor and are placed in the best salons in town where they improve techniques on the job.
• To create market linkages to women and their businesses and motivate them to do more or double their profits by diversifying in other products that were not part of the initial start-up.

Challenges

• Inadequate funds to fully purchase all the training materials for the girls to enable them to catch up with the new trends in the markets
• Women involved in businesses have challenges in getting the raw materials, this is because the cost of the materials and goods has gone higher due to the economic situation in the country brought about by COVID19.
• Girls in the apprenticeship program who have young children from 2 weeks old have a challenge in concentrating on their training, as there is no baby care where they can leave their children and attend classes without any interference hence concentrating too much on their babies missing some sessions.
• Online marketing is the current trend means of doing business in the country; this has affected the local businesses and most women are also not able to access and use the internet or social media.
• The high cost of goods has also posed challenges on current businesses hence whatever the women are provided with is not adequate to fully make them strong in their families to meet full family needs.
• In cases where the fathers are the perpetrators, some mothers tend to tune the girls so that they do not admit that it was their fathers who raped them to protect their marriages

Cross Cutting Issues

• Offering psychosocial support to women in apprenticeship and women in empowerment program
• Training of business skills and boosting on business ideas to women
• Joining online platforms to promote women in marketing their products
• Providing sanitary packs to the girls
• Conducting health outreaches
• Creation of awareness on children’s rights and gender-based violence
• Mobilization and identification for PWDs to support in linkage to other social services