Meg Foundation School
Grant amount: $3200
Team size: 45 men & women
Launched June 2008
Social impact: 90 women & their families
ISSUE: This
team has identified women’s involvement in sex work, and in turn exposure
to and lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS as one of the greatest problems
facing their community. In Kinamba, Kigali, many women and girls have been
left widowed or orphaned from the genocide and have felt forced into
prostitution with little to no education and skills to secure other jobs.
One team-member states, “After talking to the women, we have helped them
to decide to leave prostitution and change their lives, but they need
skills training in order to be able to earn a living without
prostitution.”
SOLUTION:
To help
vulnerable women earn a sustainable living without exposing themselves to
HIV/AIDS through prostitution, the MEG Foundation School offers
training in tailoring, workshops on HIV/AIDS prevention and reproductive
health as well as literacy and English classes.
The goals of the project, measured through surveys,
interviews and home visits, include that
every student is
able to make clothes on her own, that the hygiene and nutrition of the
women improve, that they understand the consequences of HIV/AIDS and how
to prevent it by using condoms, that women understand their options for
contraception, and that the participants learn to read and write.
Impact:
In its first
year,
the Meg Foundation Tailoring School has provided 90 prostitutes a sustainable and healthy
alternative for themselves and their families.
In
collaboration with another Global Grassroots team, “Achieving a Better
Life”, the women have been attending monthly theatre performances on
domestic violence, and a few have started to discuss the issue of abuse
with their male partners, informing them that they now understand their
rights. The school is operating sustainably, and is able to generate
income to support their ongoing operating costs by selling fabric shopping
bags made by the women. In August, with the support of Jewish Helping
Hands, the school was able to produce 650 hand-made bags for the annual
conference of the SEEP Network, an international microfinance association.
This contract will allow them to purchase more sewing machines and/or
cover salaries for six months.
One remarkable success is that all 30 women from the first
graduating class have left prostitution and are able to earn as much money
through tailoring contracts as they did through sex work. The women have
formed their own sewing cooperative and obtained microcredit through a
local microfinance bank to buy the start-up materials for the
cooperative. The cooperative will allow them to solicit larger contracts,
develop a credit and loan scheme, and continue to support one another.
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Christian Initiative
of Education for Sustainable
Peace and Development (CIESPD)
Vocational Training School
Grant Amount: $2900
Team size: 8 members
Launched
October 2008
Social impact: 200 vulnerable women and girls
ISSUE: CIESPD
founder Maria Mukanzigiye discovered
that many girls
and women traumatized by the genocide and other forms of violence
choose to turn to sex work to meet their daily needs. These women
and girls are often responsible for providing for their children or
siblings' basic needs and school fees alone. The trauma impacts their lack
of self-worth, and without access to skill training and education
necessary to obtain new jobs, they turn to prostitution as their only way
to earn an income.
SOLUTION:
To reduce
the vulnerability of orphans, youth and women, CIESPD
offers alternative education programs in peace education, reconciliation,
literacy, vocational training and entrepreneurship in catering and salon
skills. The program aims to:
-
promote the social
transformation of prostitutes, street children and other vulnerable
youth.
-
give skills to
ex-prostitutes, vulnerable children and youth, and women so that they
can live without prostitution and street life.
-
contribute to the
emotional healing, peace and reconciliation of women, many of whom were
raped and lost their family members due to the genocide and HIV/AIDS,
through psycho-social support.
-
support graduates
with capacity building and the means to start a small sustainable
business.
Impact:
In less than 12 months, CIESPD
has already provided
training to 240 young people and is currently working to secure paid
internships or micro loans to help their graduates start their own small
enterprises.
“I had to stop my
studies because I needed to find work. I had finished my primary studies
in 1998, so there were over 9 years without stepping in the classroom. I
heard people saying that orphan children could come and join this program.
Maria treats you like a parent. Other schools will ask you to pay a lot.
Here there is no payment. This program has changed my life. I can tell you
that after the program I went to school practice (internship) and right
after I got a job.”
- Yassin
Ngiruwonsanga, CIESPD Graduate, 23 years old
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