One year on: Women's businesses grow after our project

One of our key partners and project donors, SEZ, paid us a visit this week to see firsthand the life-changing impact that our work together is making.  

CEO Philip Keil and project funder Laurids Novak visited some of the women-run businesses which were set up almost a year ago following our collaborative livelihoods project. The initiative, held at Essyan camp in late 2020, included intensive training which resulted in seven brand new women’s businesses launching. It also provided much-needed support so that 15 other businesses could re-start after being badly impacted by Covid-19.

With the backing of SEZ and the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, new businesses which launched as a result of our project included food stores and clothing shops – including one set up by mother Mariam, pictured below. Selling clothes for women and children, she says: “Starting this business has helped me immensely, and now I’m able to provide an income to support my family. In the past three months, I have even expanded my shop and added in more space for clothing so I can meet the needs of my customers.”

As well as the women’s business support programme, we have worked closely with SEZ this year to implement a vital project on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse. This launched in April and reached over 800 beneficiaries in four months, through community awareness in camps for women, men and children. We also reached NGO and government staff in order to improve internal reporting and responses to sexual abuse and exploitation.

This project was especially important as incidents of abuse have risen sharply during the pandemic – due to factors such as lockdowns, isolation and economic crisis caused by widespread job losses.

During the visit with SEZ this week, we also discussed future joint projects – and of course, we’re greatly looking forward to changing more vulnerable women and girls’ lives in 2022…