FW enterprises

In the course of the initial skills workshop, each group of young women in the focused workshop (FW) intervention plans for an enterprise they can set up together. In many cases, the young women plan for a longer term enterprise, with initial activities to generate funds and skills towards their longer term goal.

The FW does not provide capital, but the young women themselves decide what each can bring to their project, in cash or in kind. When it can make a quantum difference to reaching a functional goal, the FW matches funds raised by the young women. Additional sessions for the groups, as necessary, cover team working, conflict resolution, funding opportunities and how to access them, and practical skills such as preparing a CV or business plan, market research and budgeting.

FW groups across the three countries have initiated many different enterprises, based on their own interest and skill-mix, and their view of local market opportunities. Initial small-scale activities have included selling airtime, making and selling fat cakes and other takeaway food. Other enterprises have included a butchery (for which the project loaned the freezer) and bakeries (the project helping with building the ovens and providing additional training). Some groups have set up vegetable gardens or hair salons or fish selling or catering, while others have learned the techniques for making floor polish or vaseline from local materials and set up local marketing for their produce.

Some of the stories of enterprises are told in a newsletter about the FW intervention. The first and second editions of the newsletter describe the challenges of setting up and sustaining enterprises and share some success stories.

Return to the Focused Workshop page or to the Interventions page.