Women entrepreneurship for community development
By Memory Mudzani
Caroline Mutimbanyoka the director of Sprout women empowerment Trust said that as the nation is struggling to fight for women’s rights and women empowerment they must also encourage women to become entrepreneurs so as to reduce cases of domestic violence.
Mutimbanyoka told this publication that as an organization they are encouraging women and girls to be entrepreneurs and to do something that will generate income and also brings economic value because with the way things are in our country some domestic violence cases are as a result of poverty so if women are also doing semiskilled work they will help in fighting poverty thus reducing domestic violence cases.
“When we are looking at our present economic environment it is an environment that is very demanding and that requires women and girls to be proactive and ensure that they are also taking part in supporting their families, with the way things are in the country we have discovered that women and girls needs to be empowered and became entrepreneurs,” said Mutimbanyoka
She further said that entrepreneurship is what they want for women and young girls ,they want them to learn how to do business, how to grow and expand their business , and also to look beyond supplying their goods in Zimbabwe but rather to also export what they are producing to other countries .
Mutimbanyoka said that their mission as an organization is to create hubs for women and girls to participate in sustainable women growth through skills development programs , leadership programs ,personal growth programs and they are also doing humans rights awareness programs to forester community group and environmental responsibility.
“As an organisation we are trying by all means to create spaces where women come together and learn some skills not only practical skills but the understanding that they should be able start something that can generate income,” said Mutimbanyoka
Mutimbanyoka told this publication that they have been training women and girls so that they will become semi-skilled workers who are able to generate income using their own hands and by doing so they are promoting women entrepreneurship
“As an organization we have done quite a lot of training , we have done oyster mushroom training ,back yard gardens and community garden to ensure that women participate in economic development ,” said Mutimbanyoka
She also said they have been training women to use scrape materials and fabrics to make sandals , doing some craft work and very soon they will introduce detergents and soap making all this in the bid to promoting women entrepreneurship.
Mutimbanyoka also said Women must become entrepreneurs so that they will be able to generate income and become independent and also peruse their goals as women
“In most cases as women we are left on side lines when it comes to economic growth and economic development so as sprout women empowerment trust we are saying that women should be at the center of economic development, we can’t be left out,” said Mutimbayoka
She further said that they have been operating in Harare CBD, Chitungwiza, Seke rural and they are working on their documents so that they can also support women in Chiweshe through their hub and they are targeting to train as many women as possible and get them into team so that they can start doing projects in teams in order for them to be sustainable and support each other.
