Equality via entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneur Initiative provides literacy and vocational training to women who have been denied a formal education. The ability to generate income provides a sense of possibility, purpose, self-worth, and self-reliance, opening pathways to positions of power in their communities. Originating as a sewing workshop, it has evolved into a multi-faceted vocational training curriculum boasting hundreds of graduates. Vocational training includes:

• Basic Literacy: Provides literacy and numeracy training for women and girls denied a formal education, due to poverty and/or their sex. The entry level is necessary for girls and women with no education to enter Action Kivu’s vocational and job training courses. To be able to read a tape measure in the Sewing Workshop or to properly measure the space between plants on the Community Farm, one must know numeracy. To be able to start a small business with a microloan, one must learn to count change and keep the books for her business. Graduating Level 1, the students move into Level 2, where they focus on reading and writing skills in Swahili, and beginner’s French. Graduating Level 2, the students move on to the final class, where they focus on speaking French, the language of education in DRC.

• Sewing Workshop: Women are trained in sewing and embroidery, and graduate with a sewing kit complete with a pedal-powered Singer machine (critical in a region with little power) to begin their own businesses, giving them the skills and tools to earn income to feed their families, send their children to school, and help break the cycle of extreme poverty in the region.

• Agricultural Training: The women working on the Community Farm are trained in the latest organic farming techniques by our university trained agronomist. Learning how to regenerate the soil using compost from the animal husbandry program, the women are able to feed their families and the community with a goal for sustainable, healthy living.

• Animal Husbandry: The Community Farm is home to several pigs, goats, and rabbits, whose feces are collected and added to farm waste to create a rich compost to feed the fish in the ponds, creating a nutrient water source for the growth of vegetables and fruits. My Goat is Your Goat is a community based program in which one family receives a goat, with the plan to give away its first-born to the next family on the list, creating a sense of community and understanding of interdependence.

• Community Microfinance program: Beginning with micro-loans from several different donors, a group of women launched a “pay it forward” financial community. As one woman earns enough income to invest back into the group, she provides $10 toward a $100 investment for its newest member to start a small business, regenerating income back into the ever-expanding circle.

• Financial Literacy / Entrepreneur Training: Graduates of the Sewing Workshop return to the Community Center to work in co-ops, and continue to hone and strengthen their skills, as well as learn from other community leaders the best practices for running a small business.