Summary of project status and achievements:
The Women’s Centre continued to run saving circles and also continued the Block B six week sewing and knitting workshop. The class is expected to graduate in October due to some delays.
This month the Friday saving circle decided to split their savings as they had been saving for a year. Many women from this group are repatriating and wanted to divide the savings and dissolve the group. This group had been saving 1,500 zmk per week. There were varying levels of participation in the saving circles, but those who had been saving weekly were able to walk away with 180,000zmk for a 2.5x return on their savings. While it is not known what all of the women have done, it is reported that at least one woman has been able to buy two young female goats to begin raising goats to support her family.
A four-day workshop was conducted on SGBV at the Women’s Centre and was taught by Dinah who was assisted by Annita. While this was Dinah’s first workshop to teach it went well and Annita was there to answer questions and add information when needed. There were four participants in this workshop but only three received certificates for completion. The Women’s Centre staff believe the attendance was low due to cultivation and it has been discussed to move these workshops to the afternoon to accommodate those who go to their gardens in the morning.
As well, this month the PM began discussing the idea of sustainability with the Women’s Centre Staff. While they were at first worried by this idea, they quickly became encouraged by the idea of running the centre independently.
Future activities and projections:
The women’s center will graduate the participants of the outreach workshop in Block B on tailoring and knitting in October. A four day workshop will be run in October, possibly in block D instead of at the centre to address the low attendance of the last workshop. As well, saving circles will continue to run. A new saving circle will be started with the graduating sewing and knitting class.
October 5-9 will be the UNHCR training on Psychosocial Counseling and Annita and Jaqui with both attend this training. This training will greatly increase the capacity of the Women’s Centre when dealing with cases of SGBV.
Indicators and statistics:
Please see M&E spreadsheet.
Substantial problems or issues:
None at this time.
Wishes or requests:
None at this time.
Budget:
Please see expense monitor.
