Women for Women International is a charity that allows a donor to be connected to a woman anywhere in the world that is suffering from poverty. The donor provides a monthly donation of $35 to a woman, or "sister," to provide job skills training, business training, knowledge of her rights, knowledge of nutrition and health, and support networks. They learn how to weave, sew and make traditional jewelry to sell at the markets. They also learn how to run a business and how to be responsible with their income. For their children, they learn proper nutrition and how to get access to necessary vaccines and medication. Also, the organization has physical locations in these countries, providing women with a network of women also looking to rise above oppression and poverty. These educational and social benefits allow a woman to learn the skills she needs to rise out of poverty. These donations help liberate women in conservative, highly religious cultures, as well as improving her family's overall quality of life.
When you donate with Women for Women International, you are truly making a difference in your sister's home-life. Many of these women live in highly patriarchal societies and men are always in charge of the families' money. In poor, developing areas around the world, men handling finances statistically results in less money going to food and education and more going to vices such as alcohol and, sometimes, even women. But, if women are given the job training needed to own her own store or sell things at local markets makes her a breadwinner. Men in poverty have a higher likelihood of being unemployed, so in some cases donors could make a woman the sole breadwinner in the household, a position that commands respect, even from their husbands. Women that earn a steady income from the charity reported that if any domestic abuse was present prior to the program, it was way down after being with Women for Women. Husbands let the women come and go as they please as well, making the movement for equity in developing countries harder to ignore in day-to-day life. The overall elevation and modernization of family dynamics in poor countries can change with this program.
If your "sister" has children, your donations are that much more beneficial and life-changing. With the necessary job skills needed to make a steady income for her family, and your sister being able to be financially responsible statistically results in better saving and spending habits in favor of the children. Women tend to spend more on food and schooling fees, and are likely to actually save money. The possibility of a brighter future for her children is what most women define as achieving success with the program.
The task of charities can seem overwhelming; there is too much poverty in the world to eradicate, too many people stuck in its grasp, but to every woman helped by this organization, it means the world to them. And that is enough to prove its worth. One of the keys to solving global poverty is economic empowerment, and this organization makes that engaging and personal.
