Joseph Terranova, co-founder of Tukula, shares his company’s model for women’s empowerment.
In the East African country of Uganda, a staggering 276,000 young people cannot find jobs each year. Even though many of these youth are university or trade school educated, there is simply not enough infrastructure to accommodate them in the job market. And without jobs, many of these youth will relapse into the cyclical poverty endemic in much of their country.
Photo credit: Bobby Neptune/Tukula
Young women are particularly vulnerable to unemployment. Many find themselves caught in premature marriages, struggling to support their children with little hope of saving for the future of their families.
But in the heart of Jinja, Uganda’s second largest city, five young women work diligently to create beautiful handmade bags and other accessories for Tukula (meaning “we grow” in Luganda), a for-profit social enterprise based out of Lancaster, Pa. The women, who range in age from 16 to 33, have different life stories.
All of them have completed some amount of tailoring school, and two are continuing their education using the money they earn at Tukula. The women hail from different tribes and ascribe to different religions. But what brings them together is their desire to better the future of themselves and their families.
One of these women, Ayakaka Sally, talks about the impact that Tukula has had on her life. “I used to depend on people,” she says. “But Tukula has made me to be on my own. Now I can afford my food. I can pay my rent. It’s good for me.”
Tukula works with its artisans to create budgets and savings programs aimed at preparing each woman to attain her future goals. By creating and selling beautiful, high-quality products, the company hopes to impact more women in the future.
Tukula is working to eliminate abject poverty in Uganda before it begins, one woman at a time. To learn more visit tukula.org.
At ONE, you will often hear the jargon “siloed,” “cross-cutting” and “lens” when referring to our issues affecting global poverty. In reality, all the issues are cross-cutting and work hand-in-hand toward worldwide development. One lens that is important to ONE and gaining the attention of the international community is gender and its role in development objectives. So, let’s put on our gender glasses and take a look at what is happening around this topic.
Recently, I flew to Calcutta, India with an award-winning crew of filmmakers to document the compelling story of Project Rhino, an organization that is providing free education to children in Calcutta’s slums and villages. Our mission? Capture their story in four minutes.
Looking to perk up your Tuesday night? Look no further –- we’re having a Twitter party, and you’re invited. ONE is teaming up with Mom It Forward, a worldwide network dedicated to enhancing the lives of women, their families and the communities in which they live, on Tuesday, March 8 to discuss women’s empowerment in the developing world. Perfect timing, since that just so happens to be International Women’s Day.
So how does this Twitter party work? Every 10 minutes, Mom It Forward will tweet a question on empowering women, and ONE will tweet back the answer. You’re free to discuss via Twitter…until the next question comes along! There are some serious chances to win ONE swag, so keep your eyes peeled!
Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to join (so guys, that means you, too!). And we would love if our members and blog readers could be there to represent ONE and help boost awareness around our Senate budget petition.
Here are the details:
What: Girls’ Night Out Twitter party. Use the Twitter hashtag (#gno) to show that you’re participating! When: Tuesday, March 8 from 9 to 11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT and 6 PT) Where: From your computer or mobile phone Who: Brand Panelist: @ONECampaign; Moderators: @jylmomIF @Dadventurous @troypattee and @MomItForward RSVP: Click this link and enter your Twitter URL and Twitter ID
There’s so much potential in Africa’s females, and with 430 million women and girls currently driving Africa’s economy, we’re getting there. When women are given the proper tools, they can help lift communities out of poverty and transform millions of lives.
We are excited to share news of an up-and-coming education initiative aimed at providing access to quality secondary education for girls worldwide. Connect to Learn, a collaboration between the Earth Institute, Ericsson, Millennium Promise and Madonna, grants students three-year scholarships to secondary schools and sets up mobile broadband technology to connect their classrooms to a 21st century education.
With less than two weeks until world leaders converge in New York City for the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we are anxious to see how countries are planning to achieve them.
She noted that MDG 3, which promotes gender equality and women empowerment, is the lynch pin to achieving the other MDGs. Not only is gender equality an issue of fairness, it is also smart business — increased participation of women in politics decreases corruption.
Ambassador Verveer noted that only a fifth of positions in national governments are held by women, and said, “Democracy without the participation of women is a contradiction in terms.”
The gender gap in some areas of the world is staggering, and Ambassador Verveer believes that investing in women is the world’s greatest untapped resource.
She noted that women do 60 percent of the world’s work, but earn only 5 percent of the income. The Obama administration’s Global Health and Feed the Future initiatives will attempt to integrate essential programs to empower women and more effectively help them succeed worldwide.
While it was clear that Ambassador Verveer understood the importance of women and girls and that the administration agrees they are a key feature of the MDG plan, it’s unclear how they plan to put that belief into action in U.S. development policy and provide a sustainable path forward.
ONE is looking forward to hearing more details on how the MDG strategy will be implemented and how it will fit into ongoing efforts to reform U.S. development policy –- including the administration’s Presidential Study Directive and Congress’s rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act.
Election raises concerns about suppression of rights – Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, is set to win another term Tuesday in an election marred by killings, a lack of credible political opponents and censorship. Critics are calling the leader the continent’s latest strongman, suppressing human rights to deepen his grip on power. (Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post)
American leadership crucial at MDG Summit – President of Bread for the World, Rev. David Beckmann, argues that by showing leadership on foreign assistance reform at the upcoming Millennium Development Goals Summit, President Obama will “attach actions to his words on development“ and hopefully lead others to empower the world’s poorest people to realize a brighter future. (Huffington Post)
U.S. plan fails to end Africa’s trade isolation – Ten years after the U.S. adopted the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) – a program that boldly proclaimed it would help end Africa’s isolation from world trade – American officials are being candid about its failures, emphasizing its modest results despite “the highest of hopes.” (Alan Beattie, Financial Times)
Sierra Leone taking initiative for maternal health – Health advocate, Mary Robinson, highlights the major steps Sierra Leone has taken in promoting maternal health and gender equality, both for its people and globally as a model of leadership and initiative in this critical area. She calls for other nations to look to Sierra Leone as an example as we move toward review of the Millennium Development Goals.
Rotavirus vaccines save poorest children, say reports – Trials in Asia and Africa show rotavirus vaccines can prevent between 39 to 48 percent of infections among children in some of the poorest countries in the world, with new reports urging governments of developing nations to make the vaccines a priority. (Maggie Fox, Reuters)
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
