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Community Development2 min read

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International Women's Day

Blog Team
Mar 08, 2012

Today is International Women’s Day—an opportunity to celebrate the hope of bright, productive, and rewarding futures for thousands of impoverished women around the world. World Help is marking today by highlighting the success of hundreds of women who have been equipped through vocational training.

After working extensively to care for these women, we have found education and practical training to be some of the most effective tools we can give them to care for their families, improve their lives, and build toward a prosperous tomorrow.

In Kigali, Rwanda, one of our vocational training centers is literally changing futures. The school equips its students with tailoring, catering, and welding skills. And through this fundamental, yet empowering education, women are providing for their families. An income gives a family nutrition, opportunities for education, medical attention, and peace of mind.

Every wife and mother feels a responsibility to their families, has dreams for them, and desires to give them the very best. Yet so many cannot even escape the daily struggle for survival. This is the reality of poverty.

For these women, vocational training can mean health and hope.

Juliette and Jacqueline

Juliette is one of these women. She attends the vocational center in Kigali, and her story represents the restoration of hundreds of families around the world through simple occupational training:

She made the final stitch and held up the finished product—a colorfully printed shoulder bag. Tomorrow she’ll take this bag and the rest of her products to the market to sell. Through scholarship, Juliette enrolled in the tailoring program at the vocational school. Before the training, she could barely feed her own children. But today, she is filled with an overwhelming peace because she knows she can provide for their needs.

Jacqueline has a different story—a desperate story. One she and her family must live out each day:

She watched her firstborn child die—helpless to stop a disease that is easily prevented with simple medicines. Soon after, her husband abandoned their family, leaving her alone to care and provide for five children. Jacqueline gathers firewood and performs other odd jobs to provide for her children, but she is barely able to make ends meet. Some months she can’t pay rent, and her children have very little food.

She has never attended school and cannot read or write, but she hopes to learn . . . even as an adult. She dreams of raising livestock to provide a dependable source of income for her children. But for now   . . . it is only a dream.

With a scholarship, Jacqueline could receive skills training that will completely transform her life, the lives of her children, their future, and their children’s future.

In Rwanda and other developing countries, mastering a trade is more than a skill. It is a symbol of independence, dignity, and hope for the future.

World Help and our international partners are working hard to restore hope and independence to women whose lives have been uprooted through poverty, social unrest, and gender discrimination. By establishing vocational training centers and scholarships for women in impoverished communities, we strengthen entire nations from the inside out.

For this reason, we are highlighting International Women’s Day as an opportunity to further the cycle of courage and hope . . . so that thousands more are impacted. Will you celebrate today by helping to bring continued development for women around the world?

Learn more about our vocational centers and how you can empower women. 

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