COVID-19 Relief Funds for Women-Led Non-Profits

Dear Friends of WomenLead Institute,

I am excited to update you on our ongoing campaign to raise COVID-19 relief funds for women-led organizations around the globe. Your generous donations have provided communities with opportunities to generate income, support rural populations, and aid grassroots organizations. Below are just a few stories of how you have made an impact.

Indonesia: The Pusat Studi Wanita (Centre of Women’s Studies) at Universitas Pasundan Bandung used its relief funds to conduct business management trainings and provide coaching sessions to female entrepreneurs located in rural communities. A study conducted by the Centre found that a majority of female-led businesses faced significant declines in sales and were at risk of collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The trainings provided an opportunity for the women to gain new skills and develop innovative marketing strategies to better support their businesses.

Mozambique: Associação Instituto de Terapia Sistemica e Sustentabilidadede Moçambique (ITSSM) works to include more women in agro-businesses along the horticultural value chain – to grow their businesses and create input and output markets in their communities. The pandemic’s effect on income from their agro-business and production threatened their own food security.

ITSSM used its COVID-19 relief funds to provide 200 women 20g of covo vegetable seeds for their groups and home gardens. One of the group leaders said, “The idea of having a home vegetable garden has taught us something new because we used to think gardens should be in the fields. As a group we (still) have this common garden in the fields but each of us has a home backyard garden as well.” The women experienced further challenges when two cyclones hit the country, and from December to early April, ITSSM was unable to deliver the covo seeds due to road flooding and topsoil erosion. The team pivoted and began to teach the women to make and use organic manure and pesticides to support their crops, reduce costs, and continue with horticultural production.

Myanmar: Summer Shelter Library used its COVID-19 relief funds to support a community farming project that benefits teachers who are unemployed due to the pandemic. The project addresses the problem of food security in the community and provides temporary income for the teachers. The funds were also used to support a project called “Tech Age Girls” (TAG) which is co-funded through the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation. TAG brings girls together in the organization’s library for computer literacy training drawing on the organization’s computers, Wi-Fi, and other technical support.

Nigeria: Faduk Care Foundation is an NGO committed to eradicating poverty and addressing economic challenges across Nigeria. When lockdown restrictions were implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many households were no longer able to participate in income-generating activities, exacerbating existing economic challenges in rural communities. The impact was particularly noticeable among young women and girls, who were no longer able to afford adequate menstrual hygiene products and were instead relying on dry leaves, unhygienic rags, and sand.

With the relief funds, the Faduk Care Foundation trained ten women on menstrual hygiene management and products. These women had been severely impacted by the pandemic and were struggling to support their businesses and households. The funds allowed them to purchase locally-sourced materials and sewing machines to produce reusable menstrual cloth pads. The women were then able to sell these products to over 200 secondary school girls in nearby communities, while contributing to their household income.

Nigeria: Glowing Splints Development Initiative (GSDI) is an NGO with a mission to ignite leadership potential in women, children, and young adults through basic education, entrepreneurship, and leadership training. Its Back-to-School Project works in primary public schools and low-income schools in Lagos. Using its GlobalGiving donation, GSDI provided students of two low-income nursery and primary schools with school bags, water bottles, exercise books, and pens, pencils, rulers and sharpeners and paid school fees for four students as well as a school uniform for one of the students.

Papua New Guinea: The Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network (APNG: WLN) is a membership organization dedicated to promoting women’s leadership across Papua New Guinea. The members come from a variety of backgrounds, working in the public and private sectors to bring about change in their communities. The network lost its main donor at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and capitalized on its relief funds as a result. APNG: WLN was able to purchase new equipment including a video conferencing camera and a speaker system to hold a virtual workshop with Counterpart’s WomenLead Institute. This workshop trained members on a number of facilitation skills, including training methods and adult learning styles, so that they themselves can train others throughout Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea: The COVID-19 pandemic only added to the woes facing APNG: WLN’s Lucy Hera and her Pulumani Village Group. Located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the community was already facing an outbreak of African swine fever and many were unable to sell their raised pigs to generate income. With her COVID relief funds, Lucy was able to purchase a sewing machine and materials to produce more than 500 fabric masks, which were then sold to the local Koroba Primary School. She was also able to invest in a drum oven, allowing her group to sell baked goods throughout the region. The income generated from these activities helped members pay school fees, allowing their children to receive an education.

Thank you again for your generous donation. We will continue to support women-led organizations around the globe as funds become available and look forward to sharing more stories with you.

Regards,

Carly Smith

Program Associate, WomenLead Institute

Links:

• WomenLead Institute

Dear Friends of WomenLead Institute,

More than a year into the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to ravage countries around the world. Case numbers remained low in Papua New Guinea (PNG) until March of this year. Since then, there has been a dramatic surge in cases. With an overburdened medical care system, and misinformation rampant, the number of cases and deaths continue to rise.

PNG is home to more than 65 WLI alumnae. These women leaders span the country, from the capital of Port Moresby to remote villages in the Highlands. To date, donations of COVID Relief Funds have been made to eight of their organizations. Below are three stories of how the funds have been used in PNG:

• Many of the women who work with the WomenLead Institute, lead informal women’s groups created to maximize production and sales of products to earn income for their members and support various community initiatives. One group in PNG used its COVID-19 Relief Funds to purchase materials and train its members to design, sew and sell traditional PNG flag dresses and bilums, resulting in income that enabled women to send their children to school. Group members also provided cooked meals to people living with HIV and AIDS and provided them with transport to the hospital for health services.

• The Simbu Women in Floriculture Group is an informal group of flower growers in the rural highlands of PNG. Lack of roads, difficult terrain, and poor government support created tremendous hardships for women even before the pandemic. COVID-19 exacerbated the harsh situation as the farmers saw their products and other produce go to waste, unable to sell or transport their goods to other provinces. Although family gardens produced food, women did not know how to prepare nutritious meals for their families. The COVID Relief Funds were used to purchase ingredients to help group members prepare healthy and balanced meals for their families. The group also purchased material to sew face masks, and women who owned a sewing machine were able to produce masks to sell in the local market. The money earned went to supporting the group’s operations and to the sewers for their personal use. Because people in Simbu knew very little about COVID 19, the group also conducted Precaution and Preparedness Awareness Training in the community.

• ATprojects is an NGO working in rural PNG. When their UNICEF-supported project that produced Munpad hygiene kits was put on hold from May-November 2020, they were unable to provide the kits (reusable sanitary towels, and supplies) to the female students and teachers they had been serving. This meant that many of ATprojects staff were unemployed for six months. The organization used the COVID-19 Relief Funds to purchase a new heavy-duty sewing machine and polyurethane materials from Australia. The machine and supplies will be used to manufacture thousands more Munpads for girls in 35 schools in Goroka District in 2021.

Thank you again for your generous donation. We will continue to fund organizations such as these in PNG and around the world as funds become available. We look forward to sharing more stories with you.

Regards,

Jennifer Albee

Director, WomenLead Institute

Links:

• WomenLead Institute