200 women will be the part of the program that has been developed to help young women to become economically independents.
Women First Self-Help Program is a Six-month business and technical skills development initiative for women between the ages of 18 to 35. The program aims to equip 200 Basotho women with practical abilities that they could use to start, run and successfully manage their own businesses.
According to the Project Lead “Lots of women in our rural areas of Lesotho are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty; due to a lack of diverse education and skill-building opportunities.
Sometimes the young girls dropped out of school to take over household responsibilities, and many never had the chance to go back. Even in cases where they complete their education, getting a job is a challenge due to high unemployment rate. They end up becoming sex slaves and some are being trafficked, while others become domestic workers in the neighboring countries such as South Africa.”
The Goal of this program is to organize 6 months training and Skills development incubation. 200 female beneficiaries will learn different business skills, which includes practical skills which they can use to start businesses.
The program entails: six weeks, weekend training, including one site visit per intake and 2 full weeks’ practical trainings from expects in the fields of beauty culture, beauty therapist, artisan and jewellery design
Teboho quoted “The plan is to use local business trainers and import the international skills facilitator in our areas on needs. Objective of this program is to see our participants become economical independent, help their families financially and creating employment for themselves and others in their community. And all the equipment that will be used for training will be given to the best performing participants as a way to help them start their businesses. The Program is scheduled to start by the end of October 2020 and run until March 2021.”
The program is the recipient of the Annual U.S Exchange Program competition, Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund, AEIF provides small grants to teams of past and current participants of U.S government-sponsored exchange programs to carry out public service project using the skills and knowledge they gained during their exchange experiences.
The AEIF was this year focused on projects strengthening the role of women in peace, security and governance, promoting protection of women and girls from violence, abuse and exploitation
So far, they have collaborated with partnered with LadyM Foundations which will be the placement partner post the training and mentorship and ScaleInk which the project program partners.
Those interested will be required to submit a motivation of why they would like to be part of the program and should have a minimum qualification of a Junior Certificate (JC) The program will run in four cohort starting first at Leribe followed by one in Maseru and lastly in Mafeteng. The exact dates are yet to be announced.
Contact Person.
Teboho Seboka
5850 0000 /59035611