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Women's Day and Women's Entrepreneurship- Julie
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Aug 4, 2008 Posted by Caitlin CohenYesterday, Cari and I ventured across the Niger River to the other
half of Bamako. The occasion: La Journée Panafricaine des Femmes. Not
knowing what to expect, we were surprised and delighted to enter a
large auditorium filled with women all wearing clothes of the same
fabric!!! It was designed specifically for the occasion – the date and
the seal of the Panafrican Women's Organization appeared on the fabric
design.
The day is an annual convention-of-sorts where women and men come
from across the country (and all of West Africa??) to mingle, eat, and
address pertinent issues. This year the theme was "Impacts of
Globalization on Poverty in Africa", with a focus on the role of
women. Participants spoke, performed skits, danced, and sang on a
stage in front of the wonderfully-matching audience.
I loved seeing these women taking such an active role to find poverty
alleviation solutions. It fits nicely with the mission behind Musow
Jigi, MHOP's microfinance center: to provide Sikoroni's women with the
resources to bring themselves and their families out of poverty.
These resources are not simply in the form of micro-loans. This
summer I've been trying to integrate non-financial components into
Musow Jigi's services. For example, we want to start offering
entrepreneurship courses to teach women basic economics and business
intuition. On Wednesday I met with a group of three Sikoronians to
discuss prospects for this – Niang (MHOP's Malian director), Aisata
Touré (teacher of MHOP/CAFO's women's literacy courses), and Ami Keita
(member of the CHAG and micro-loan recipient). They gave me crucial
insights and great ideas about what would make the course work, and
expressed interest in taking it themselves!
Now, my plan of action is to track down appropriate materials and put
them together into a first-draft lesson book. Then I'll take it to the
group for revisions, and soon thereafter we'll be ready for a brand
new Musow Jigi entrepreneurship course for women in Sikoroni! Get
excited, because I sure am.