Prevention
A way that we rescue and prevent these issues is by finding pregnant or lactating women who are vulnerable, and help facilitate a community for them. Most women have felt like property most of their lives and have never experienced the feeling of friendships and sisterhood. We provide the avenue to build these friendships in order to give support and encouragement to one another.
At these gatherings we offer them supplemental nutrition, because most poverty-stricken women feed their families first, and often nothing is left for them. We teach them about family planning and health, and how to take care of their bodies. They learn, often for the first time, how the nutrition of the mother directly relates to the health of the baby.
With this initiative, it gives the baby girls a strong start. The mothers are healthier, there are less complications during pregnancy and birth, and the child mortality rate dramatically decreases.
We use this 9 months of building relationship with them to be able to speak into their lives when they give birth to their girls. Through this we are able to rescue babies from being killed at birth, and then we talk to the mom about getting her to join our women’s entrepreneurship program and rescue her own girl - to help create long-term, self-sustainable change.
As women have lived over the years feeling little to no value, they often feel hopeless and have never vocalized their hopes and dreams before. Through our entrepreneurship program, we take these women and infuse them with hope, and teach them to dream again. We offer them a community, and give them business training. We teach them good business practices and how to write a business plan. We help them use their own skills and talents and see how it can impact their own communities. Then when they are ready, we give them a microloan, help them open a bank account, and help them launch their businesses.