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Women's Economic Empowerment

We empower Haitian women by fostering entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods

Women’s Small Business Initiative

Women’s Small Business Initiative (WSBI)
WSBI empowers women with the tools and resources they need to build sustainable and profitable businesses to increase income and and improve wellbeing.

The program offers:

  • Business training using the Street Business School curriculum
  • Collateral-free affordable loans to launch or expand a business
  • Grants, including merchandise and livelihood assets to help sustain a business
  • Ongoing coaching
  • Access to a network for entrepreneurs
 
We train women to sew, make detergents, soaps, perfumes, and handicrafts. Some own stores, but the aim is to scale up to increase income to meet need and escape poverty.

 

Monitoring and Evaluation
We use advanced tools like the Taroworks mobile app for field data collection and the Salesforce cloud-based database to measure our impact. Our success metrics include income growth, the establishment of sustainable and profitable businesses, and improvements in quality of life.

Business Sustainability
Undercapitalization often leads to business failure and debt traps. To address this, we’ve introduced grants to bolster businesses and ensure profitability alongside loans. Grants come in various forms, including merchandise and cash. For instance, rural women have received goats as grants, alongside their initial loans. While goats can be sold, two must be retained for breeding and income generation. The revenue generated from selling goat offspring is reinvested to nurture and expand businesses. This innovative approach has led to substantial results, with income increasing by 30% to 100% for some entrepreneurs.