Gender inequalities in education and economics and access to business Opportunities make women vulnerable to income poverty and denial of opportunities and the essentials that provide a better life. If these issues are not addressed, together they perpetuate poverty from one generation to the next. – President Mbeki
Empowering Women through the Beacon Program
Women make up 70% of the world’s poor.
Over 40% of women in Africa don’t have access to basic education. Many of the girls who complete elementary school will drop out because they cannot afford to enroll in high school, which is not free, leaving behind their dreams of becoming strong, successful business women. The easiest option for them is to become farmers, making up over 80% of farmers in Africa.
Many of the women in Africa, especially the rural areas, have been hit hard, including being HIV positive and risking passing that on to their children. They carry the burden for providing their families with the basic needs of survival. Many of those families are led by single women who lost their husbands during the genocide. Often they must travel long distances to go to the market and to gather unsafe water for their families, as well as tending to their farms.
Hope can be found in projects enabling women to be self-sufficient.
The Beacon Program is a women’s empowerment initiative created by the Koinonia Foundation. We structured a national cooperative headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda.
The ‘Beacon’ women are trained in business management, touching on areas such as accounting/bookkeeping, marketing, advertising, and inventory management. Then, upon completion, each are given a grant of six solar lanterns to generate their own income through sales. Because of the economy, they are driven to truly implement what they learned in the Beacon training.
Currently, there have been 75 women who have gone through the training and some have gone on to open their own storefronts, such as a tailoring shop and a coffee shop, as well as other general merchandise stores.
To put power directly in women’s hands, the Foundation formed a government-registered cooperative for women to begin and operate a business selling the K-Light. Each woman upon joining the cooperative receives a K-Light grant, enabling her to develop start-up capital. The women decide how to invest their profits and can grow their business by purchasing additional K-Lights at a price slightly above cost from a company in Rwanda. All women receive business training so that they have the knowledge to sustain and grow their business.
To develop the program, we hired an educated but unemployed Rwandese woman. The women have elected officers, started a bank account, opened a small store, and negotiated with the local government for micro-loans. The women have said they plan to use their profits to educate their children and themselves.
We are currently expanding to the southern province of Rwanda and are planning on training the next group of women the summer of 2011.
While many worthy programs sponsor monthly food supplies or yearly education, the Beacon Program intends to secure a family’s financial needs and a lifetime of food and education, while also empowering the family to be self-reliant members of their communities.
Voices from the Beacon Women:
“My mother also died when I was still in primary school. The life became very hard but I did it till the end despite the lack of school materials…I wished to join university but was not able and no body was interested to me. I did not find a job…I got married. We afforded to build a house using loans which became a serious problem…My children are the most affected by the problem. School fees and materials is a big challenge for them…”
“My son is 2 years old. he is in nursery school. I have to take care of him and myself. With the support of Koinonia Foundation I hope to improve my capability economically, keeping my kid in school without depending on some one and joining the high education too for the good of my country…”
“At the school age I could not go to school because of poverty that’s why I’m illiterate…I do all my best to take care of my children but one of them cannot go to school because of lack of money…Koinonia Foundation will empower me and assist me in changing my life…I will go to school all my children as well.”