Women empowerment.

“When women flourish, the whole community prospers .” 

What is the current situation?

The strict traditions in Siwa relate largely to women, whom after marriage (often at the age of 16), see a drastically change in their lives. They start to wear traditional clothing fully covering themselves, fulfil strict gender roles and are forbidden to have any contact with men. This leads to women ‘disappearing’ into a world unreachable to outsiders. Their entire life, women are completely (economically) dependent on their families and later on their husbands, leaving them with no autonomy over their own lives. Insufficient education, lack of work experience and skills, traditional roles, fear of judgment and the physical distance of the workplace, all stand in the way from women developing their potential and entering the job market.

What is the ideal?

One of the main criteria to achieve gender equality for women is to earn their own income, to be able to be economically independent and improve their standards of living. The empowerment of women and girls is essential for many reasons, but at its core it strengthens families, communities and eventually entire countries. Studies confirm that women reinvest a bigger part of their earnings in their community than men, which positively influences education, healthcare and wellbeing. 

What will we do? 

Women’s capacity building is the key element in this project, building for women the necessary working skills and self-confidence. Considering the conservative culture, we adopt a culturally sensitive approach: ‘women for women’. This implies the project is owned and implemented by women who are working, for women who want to work and need support.

This project provides two types of job opportunities for women: as pre-school teachers and traditional artisans. In this way, their empowerment  will lead to better education for children and to a revival of the unique local heritage.

We recognize three main barriers limiting women from participating in the job market:

1. Individual level (women’s low self-confidence and capacity to work).
2. Family level (heavy burden of unpaid care work).
3. Community level (traditions that limit women’s role at home).

To remove the identified key barriers, three pillars are designed:

1. Create a supporting and understanding environment for women to work outside their homes (by mutual women’s support groups).
2. Help women to acquire skills and confidence to work (providing vocational training and internship opportunities).
3. Increase women’s possibility to work (by establishing a kindergarten with qualified teachers, to take care of the women’s main responsibility: their children).