WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL-ENTERPRISE PROGRAMS

“Educate a man and you educate an individual. Educate a woman and you educate a family.”   A. Cripps

Naledi Initiative works with women living in underserved villages and in extreme poverty to inspire them to transform their lives through attaining skills that equip them to move from mere survival to thriving lives. Naledi Initiative helps community women develop skills so they can support their families. These women are often widowed or with husbands who are ill or unemployed.

Empowered women can transform their world and generations. "Women's empowerment collective, or self-help groups strengthen, an opportunity for women to come together as women, to build up group solidarity, to pool savings together and share risks, and fundamentally become more empowered themselves"- Sarah Handrisks. When women don't participate in their economies as fully as men, by owing and using bank accounts to access loans, to save money, to start their business, we are leaving incredible value off the table.

Studies and statistics from the scholars has confirmed that women are more likely to invest anything that they earn back into their families. When family planning programs thrive, women are more empowered, they have control of their lives for instance; if they want to get pregnant, how often and whom they want to get pregnant with (reproductive rights).

The statistics shows that:

 63% of the world's 750 million, illiterate  adults are women.

 It will take approximately 202 years before women and men have equal economic power.

 214 million women can't access modern contraceptives in the developing world.

 If women had equal access to resources on farms, they could reduce world's hunger by 17%.

“Little girls with dreams become women with vision” Unknown

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world and pursue dreams.

Take action to support adolescent girls in rural schools and community to take charge of their lives.

Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading causes of death among girls aged 15-19 years globally, with low and middle-income countries. 20,000 girls under the age 18 give birth per day in developing countries this excludes; stillbirth, maternal mortality, and abortions in which adolescent pregnancies would be much higher. When a girl become pregnant, her life stand-still. Her education may end , and her job prospects diminish. She becomes more vulnerable to poverty and exclusion and her health often suffers. Adolescent pregnancy is generally not the result of a deliberate choice-these girls often have little to say over decisions affecting their lives. rather, early pregnancy is a consequence of little or no access to school, information or health care.

Naledi Initiative works in remote rural areas to address these issues through sexuality education, and sexual and reproductive health care to help girls avoid pregnancy. We advocate supporting girls who become pregnant to return to school and achieve their full potential. 

The focus is to improve healthy relationship between males and females, the possibilities of correcting some harmful stereotypes and promote mutual relationship between genders. We equip them to be responsible brothers, husbands, fathers and members of the society.

"Their dreams matters as much as any other child's."

"When girls get opportunities they deserve, amazing things start happening: poverty goes down, economies grow, families get stronger, and babies born healthier."