Women Empowerment
Our Women’s Empowerment initiatives focus on strengthening financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and economic self-sufficiency for parents and guardians of scholarship students. Through multi-phase training — delivered in collaboration with global partners — participants learn business management, budgeting, and income-generation skills. These programmes enhance household stability and give women tools to support their families and contribute meaningfully to their communities.
Programmes supporting financial independence and life skills for women
If the allocation of productive resources were not skewed against women, rural Kenyan
Households would be able to work more efficiently and thus produce more, so if a greater share of credit, inputs, land, and labour were to be controlled by women, overall poverty could be reduced. We believe that the general mandate for reducing rural poverty is by channelling more resources to women who are not just left but pushed behind by society, through economic and social structures framed on patriarchal norms, which exacerbate and perpetuate inequality.
Intersectionality is experienced through social class and level of literacy, to mention but a few, compounds rural women’s experience of poverty.
Social reproduction depletes women’s capabilities - care work, which forms the backbone of societies, remains marginal in the design of economic and labour policies. Consider that rural women’s poverty is related to the large amount of unpaid care and domestic work they undertake for their families. Recognize that rural women’s poverty entails the depletion of their human capabilities - they have no time to rest, with an adverse impact on their physical and mental health.
At RTSEF, we acknowledge that rural women's poverty is a human rights issue. Implementing and involving them in our financial literacy, coupled with savings and loaning programs are integral to upholding their dignity and increasing their capabilities in their households. We believe that financial freedom is key to leading a dignified life. Finances are tied to food quality, education, healthcare, and overall life. We set bases in Siaya, Migori, Homabay, Busia, and Kisumu counties.
Also, we are proud to be benefiting over 100 parents and guardians of the scholarship program, hence the men in the program, and young women who had dropped out of school due to various life challenges, most of them financial. The goal of all this is to see to it that our participants emerge with information and the tools they need to run a successful business.
www.harambee-africa.org/progetti/kenya-microfinanza-per-donne-imprenditrici-premio-h-giovani-imprenditori-africani
