Women entrepreneurial assistance programme : Kolektif Rivier Nwar


Date: June 18, 2019
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Kolektif Rivier Nwar is presenting the Women Entrepreneurial Assistance Program. This project has two parts:

  • Training of women who desire to set up a small business in life-skills and in entrepreneurial skills. ​
  • Technical training of women who need to improve their technical skills to become professional artisans and entrepreneurs. ​

The aims of this program is to:

  • promote and help women develop their entrepreneurial skills
  • support women who desire to set up a small business through mentoring so as to supplement their respective family income​
  • empower women to become voices of change in their respective community. The main and overall objective would be that they earn a good revenue and live a decent life with their families. ​

Criminalization of poverty was an issue raised during a stakeholder meeting in 2014 and it was determined that this was partly due to a lack of education for ​women and the lack of secure jobs for them. At the time were there no entrepreneurial activities. This is when the idea came about to engage women in income generating activities. In parallel, assessment of the psychologist who worked with the children of the region revealed that women were stressed out about providing for them families and often these children were the recipients of these frustrations.

The following activities were therefore offered under the WEAP program:

  • Activity 1: Functional literacy for adults
  • Activity 2: Entrepreneurship training by the Business Development & Coaching Consultant
  • Activity 3: Economic empowerment and Entrepreneurship (SME)
  • Activity 4: Coaching and Mentoring Assistance by the Business Development & Coaching consultant
  • Activity 5: Capacity building workshops/seminars
  • Activity 6: Specialised Technical Training
  • Activity 7: Monitoring and evaluation of the different activities involved in the programme
  • Activity 8: Marketing event
  • Activity 9: Preparing and submissions of progress financial reports to the NCSR Foundation.

Partners & Funders :​

  • Business Mauritius CSR Fund Ltd​
  • Empretec Mauritius​
  • SICOM Foundation ​
  • Business Mauritius​
  • IFS Foundation​
  • National CSR Fund​
  • Price Waterhouse Coopers​
  • NCSR Foundation

Implementing agency / NGO :​

  • Atelier des Sens by Patrick Vitry @ Belle Rose ​
  • Caritas Bambous​
  • Marion Hair & Beauty Institute @ Rose Hill ​
  • Fashion & Design Institute @ Ebène​
  • FAREI – Le Morne Community Centre​
  • Mouvement Autosuffisance Alimentaire @ Rose-Hill​
  • Safe Sha Training Centre​
  • C-Ridge Restaurant @ Moka​
  • Social Enterprise Anges Pour Elles​
  • QuikArt Ltd @ BeauBassin​

Budget: Rs 49877

Beneficiaries: 10 women as direct beneficiaries and 21 children as indirect beneficiary

Monitoring and Evaluation: Attendance sheets and dashboards, Situation analysis & Progress reports

Results
Women’s empowerment : ​

  • More self-esteem,​
  • More purchasing power, ​
  • More independence,​
  • Teamwork, ​
  • Leadership,​
  • Great bonding amongst women, Entrepreneurial dynamic, ​
  • Developed a network of entrepreneurial women, ​
  • Mutual aid (for example B. has referred P. to the school director and she became canteen operator), Empowerment of their daughters too, They can mentor other women too​

Public participation : ​

  • Vanilla Village Mauritian expo, ​
  • Expo at London Way Supermarket​

Capacity building :​

  • Training both in technical and soft skills, , ​
  • More literacy,​
  • Training in their special skills whether it’s sewing or catering etc, ​
  • IT literacy with Microsoft Office Tools, Facebook and Whatsapp, entrepreneurial toolkit​

Changes in gender attitudes at individual and community level: ​

  • Some husbands really supported their wives, for example one bought a van to do the deliveries, another helped her improve the quantities of product etc​

Challenges and lessons learnt

  • It was difficult for some women to attend every course because they were the only bread winner and had to work till late. Others had family issues and could not come. ​
  • A lack of attendance was recorded at the end of the training. It was found that the language barrier by the trainer impeded on the participants’ motivation.​
  • The project in-charge was not able to fulfill the responsibilities involved in the coaching and assistance of the beneficiaries and therefore quit.​

How have these challenges been overcome?​

  • One of the participants who was more at ease with French Language was designated to translate and interact with the other participants whenever required​
  • Women that were present helped the other ones to catch up.​
  • A new marketing coach was employed for the continuation of the project.​
  • Individual visits have been organized ever since in order to assess the work progress of each and every participant

It is important to have regular individual visits to assess the progress and it’s also compulsory to engage trainers that speak Creole language so they can bond with them.​


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