COVID recovery project boosts women’s coping skills

“THIS programme has helped my confidence already so much… I feel like it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” said Kadian Waller on day eight of a two-week entrepreneurship training programme in her community.

It was a view shared around the room where 16 women from the Spanish Town communities of Corletts and March Pen roads were being schooled in strategies of starting and scaling profitable business ventures.

For Waller, a mother of three who runs an online children’s clothing store, it was her first exposure to the elements involved in business operations. She is already seeing rewards.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I have seen the learning work for me,” she said, explaining that the lessons covered so far had moved her to stage a promotion which boosted her sales volume.

The Corletts/March Pen Road entrepreneurship training is part of a six-month programme – the Women Economic Empowerment Project (WEEP) – administered by Girls to Women Development Foundation, headed by Stacy Gavin. It seeks to increase the economic and social development of self-employed women (ages 18-40) in the target communities. The European Union provided $2.8-million under its Civil Society Boost Initiative II for the project while other sponsors provided another $200,000.

According to a COVID-19 study conducted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 57 per cent of Jamaican households saw a reduction in income between March and September due to the coronavirus. Men accounted for more than 73,000, or 53.8 per cent of the jobs lost in the current survey, but still dominated the employed labour force at 620,100, compared to 498,200 jobs held by women. Women lost nearly 63,000 jobs. Some research has indicated that COVID has exacerbated the vulnerability of women and girls as women usually earn less, save less and are closer to the poverty line. Their unpaid workload has also increased due to quarantine and children and elderly family members being at home.

“The work we do has the potential to change the trajectory of these women especially those who did not complete secondary school or experienced gender-based violence,” said Gavin. “While we aim to reach them all, if we can change one life, and change the circumstances of one family, that, we believe, is an immeasurable contribution to society.”

She said that along with entrepreneurship, the participants also learn about gender based violence, their rights and opportunities as women in business.

Thirty-eight-year-old Grace Pryce, a travelling hairdresser, specialises in braiding. For her, the training represents the first time she has entered the classroom since her early teens.

“I have learnt that I can treat what I do as a real business,” said Pryce, who is mostly self-taught. “I am grateful. I am going to apply the tools to manage the business. This training is giving me the push I need.”

“Plus, my daughter is gonna know from her age how to manage her business if she wants to start one,” said Pryce, who has two girls, ages seven and 16.

Participant Jody-Ann Gordon is trying to grow her swimwear business, Kuiz Designs, beyond the current clientele of friends and associates from her approximately two years of operating.

“I don’t know myself without a pen and paper. I’ve been drawing and sketching clothing from like grade three…. I start by sketching them (swimwear), cut them, then I go on the machine and execute my job,” Gordon explained when asked about her process.

“Right now, I get orders from different parishes for custom swimwear. People get them through either Knutsford Express courier service or through the post office. When I don’t have any orders, in my spare time, what I do is make some, put them out on social media and people order.”

One of her big takeaways from the WEEP is the importance of keeping tabs on spending to verify that all costs are factored into and covered by her sales.

“I will have to keep my receipts, so that I can know, basically, if there is profit based on what I’m spending in the business. This will improve my business as I will be better able to make Kuiz Designs profitable,” she said.

For business development officer of the Girls to Women Development Foundation, Kayan Walker, the foundation’s purpose is fulfilled as the participants grow during the programme.

“They come, they learn, and they are changed. That is what we hope for when we develop a project like this one. The aim is to always give them what they need to do better for themselves,” she said.

To qualify for enrolment in the programme, participants submitted applications, were shortlisted, interviewed and thereafter selected from the pool. Whittling down applicants to just 16 proved quite challenging, Walker said, pointing out that the response from the community was “tremendous”, a factor which has since influenced the facilitators’ desire to establish similar cohorts for the programme.

Come the week of December 11, participants will have to make pitch presentations to display what they have learnt and present their businesses as entrepreneurs. Upon successful completion of the project they will each receive grants towards purchasing equipment and supplies to support their businesses.

Entrepreneurship content trainer Junior Lee Buchanan explained that at the end of the training participants should be able to create a business narrative and formal plan for their businesses. To achieve this, the curriculum includes completing a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses of their efforts and moves into cash flow management and general financial planning.

“I try to make the training as focused on them as possible … Most of them are in retail, so we are helping them to come up with creative ideas,” Buchanan explained. “We want them to develop sustainable businesses.” WEEP got off the ground in October and will run until April 2021.