Fighting poverty with jobs

If women’s economic empowerment is what we do, women’s entrepreneurship is how we do it. That means training millions of members to run their own microbusinesses. In other words, it means jobs.

Hand in Hand creates jobs in four sequential stages. Group savings and skills training, the first two, aren’t rare. Nor for that matter is microfinance, the third. But where other organisations focus on one or two of these elements, Hand in Hand combines all three – then adds a fourth by connecting entrepreneurs to larger markets.

Jobs break the cycle of dependency, empowering women to speak up and make decisions for themselves and their families. They also help families absorb shocks such as a bad harvest or unexpected medical bill, laying a foundation that supports generations. For every job we create and grow, an average of family members benefit. That’s more children in school, more parents with access to life-saving medicine and more families with sturdy roofs over their heads.

Our job creation model