2010 Empowering Women Grant: Women for Women International

WWI logo_newThe Bayat Foundation announced a 2010 Bayat Foundation Empowering Women Grant in the amount of US$10,000 to Women for Women International (WfWI) for their work supporting vulnerable women in Afghanistan with job skills training and small business support to improve their income earning potential.

One of three inaugural 2010 Bayat Foundation Empowering Women Grants, these funds will provide women who have survived the effects of war in Afghanistan with the resources they need to move out of crisis and poverty to lives of stability and self-sufficiency. These women include widows, victims of human trafficking, single mothers and refugees. On average, 96% of the participants have no education, 99% have no income and 93% live without electricity. WfWI’s resources include supplemental income generation activities, such as small poultry business development, and access to microcredit.

WfWI’s founder, Zainab Salbi, said that the women also take pride in training other women so that they too can stand on their feet, support their families and then also reach out to even more women. WfWI works to make sure the women are well, have become decision-makers, have developed social networks and are earning a sustainable income.

Diana Rowan Rockefeller, Co-Chair of the New York Leadership Circle of Women for Women International and U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council member said, “Women for Women International has made a significant difference in the lives of thousands of Afghan women. It is a privilege to witness these inspired women engaging with their communities – skillfully, within the often restrictive cultural parameters they face – and yet, inspiring their communities to become whole again, daring to hope for, and to work for a better future.

Bayat Foundation President and Executive Director Fatema Laya Bayat said, “We are humbled to provide the women of Afghanistan with the encouragement and income generation support they desperately need through a 2010 Bayat Foundation Empowering Women Grant to Women for Women International.”