The problem
The explanation offered is usually about her.
She lacks confidence. She is not ambitious enough. She did not take the chance when it came.
The chance, on inspection, is often not much of a chance. It requires travelling a distance that is not safe after dark. It requires money the household has already allocated elsewhere. It requires permission. It requires childcare that does not exist. It requires a household to accept a change in who does what — and nobody has asked them to.
Confidence is not the first barrier. It is usually the last one, and it grows on its own once the others are removed.
What we do
Remove the barriers before asking for courage.
- Skills and livelihood support Designed around the realities of the day a woman actually has, not an idealised one.
- Work on access. Distance, cost, timing, safety and childcare are programme design questions, not excuses.
- Work with families. A woman’s opportunity frequently depends on a decision made by somebody else in her home. We include them rather than working around them.
- Work with the community. Expectation is a powerful constraint. Changing what a community considers normal for its daughters changes what its daughters attempt.
- Build networks, not just individuals. Women who know other women doing the same thing sustain it far longer than women who are doing it alone.
Who it is for
Women and adolescent girls, and the families and communities around them.
Fund work that removes the real barriers.
Distance, cost, timing, safety and childcare are where a programme succeeds or quietly fails. That is where we spend the design effort.