Celebrating International Women’s Month

While Village Enterprise is, at its core, a poverty alleviation organization, 80% of their program participants are women and therefore they wholeheartedly celebrated International Women’s Month this March.

• On Sunday, March 7th, the Whole Planet Foundation hosted a virtual International Women’s Day conference featuring Winnie Auma, Village Enterprise Vice President of Programs, as a panelist. She told the story of Wanican Swazy, an entrepreneur from the Okiir Village in northern Uganda, and explained how entrepreneurship can empower women. Watch the recorded session here.

• Read this inspiring story from one of their other entrepreneurs, Nabatte.  Nabatte is one of over 80,000 women in Uganda who became an entrepreneur through the Village Enterprise program since they started operating in Uganda, and one of over 2,700 women empowered through their partnership with Cartier Philanthropy since 2016. And she was part of the first group of entrepreneurs to receive business skills and financial literacy training, a seed capital grant, and mentoring thanks to the support of Cartier Philanthropy.

• In order to adapt Village Enterprise’s program to meet the unique needs of women and girls in a holistic manner, they recently started a two-year project in partnership with The Starbucks Foundation and Days for Girls to address the intersection of economic inclusion and women’s health education in Mt. Elgon, Kenya.  This collaboration is in direct response to comprehensive menstrual health education and access to menstrual health solutions for women in rural communities of Africa so that they can stay in school, support their families, and maintain the dignity that they deserve. To learn more about this multifaceted project, read their blog post here.