Time to Start Your Entrepreneurship Engines!
Since 2011, TYO has prioritized entrepreneurship programs specifically tailored to address the needs of women in Northern Palestine. With the support of the Cherie Blaire Foundation and PalTel Group Foundation, TYO’s women’s economic development programs have provided intensive business development training, coaching, and confidence-building activities for women to develop their own business plans, craft their branding and marketing strategies and materials, and eventually gain access to capitol through small business loans. We are excited to announce that after many months of preparation, needs assessment sessions, and strategic outreach, the Advancing Palestinian Women Entrepreneurs has begun! The women will be offered a robust and rigorous training curriculum from November 2015 – March 2017 and through the process they will have the opportunity to participate in idea sourcing and product development, bookkeeping, business planning and management, branding and marketing, and English and IT classes. Some of the women’s trainings will be facilitated in large groups while others will involve intensive individual coaching sessions.
While TYO focuses on women’s entrepreneurship in Northern Palestine, microenterprise has far-reaching, global impact. In fact, November 19th marked Women’s Entrepreneurship Day whereby the work of global entrepreneurs was discussed, celebrated, and observed both through events, educational seminars, and social media posts. In collaboration with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization participated in Global Women’s Empowerment Day by participating in a social media campaign detailing APWE entrepreneurs who inspire us. In a November 19th 2015 Forbes magazine article, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day founder Wendy Diamond describes the history of her volunteer work in Honduras with the Adelante Foundation and how it inspired her to start Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. She says, “I witnessed firsthand how empowering women financially has the power to transform a community. Just a single $100 startup loan—provided by one woman to help another—could make the difference for a mother who wants to send her children to school. Every woman and girl across the globe should be given the chance to follow their dreams—and letting female entrepreneurs help one another is an important step in making that a reality.”
Tomorrow’s Youth Organization also understands the importance of investing in women entrepreneurs’ leadership, critical thinking, and business development skills as women begin or continue on their entrepreneurship journey. Stay tuned for more updates as TYO and the APWE entrepreneurs embark on what will most certainly be an experience of a lifetime that will have positive impact not only on the entrepreneurs, their families, and their communities.
Vanessa, Women’s Empowerment Program Coordinator