This is La Guilde's site dedicated to solidarity projects. Make a donation to The Guild

Log in

Socio-economic empowerment of women on Île Sainte-Marie

  • 2024 Winner

DINA MADA

Context

L'’Sainte-Marie Island Northern Madagascar has approximately 30,000 inhabitants. Its insularity... hinders the pursuit of studies and the establishment of professionals from Madagascar. Tourism, the main source of income, has been recovering since 2022 and shortage of qualified staff in the kitchen, pastry shop and reception. Girls leave school earlier than boys and have more difficulty accessing employment.. Many women, often solely responsible for their children, engage in precarious and poorly paid work.

Faced with this situation, which arose from decentralized cooperation between the Analanjirofo Region and the former Nord-Pas de Calais Region, the French association Dina Mada and the Women's Gathering for the Development of Sainte-Marie (RFDS) have been wearing them since 2020 a multi-year program for the economic empowerment of women. They created a teaching kitchen at the Women's House, established a pool of local trainers and trained more than 40 women in cooking and pastry making. A mobile kitchen It also allows training to be extended to remote areas. Not all trained women will be hired in the hotel industry, and many want to open their own business. However, they face several obstacles: the lack of management skills, the cost of inputs and access to financing. These obstacles are currently keeping them out of the national small business support program Fihariana.

  • Country: Madagascar
  • Location: Ambodifotatra, Sainte-Marie Island
  • Sector of intervention:
    Education and Training
  • Guild Grant: €6,000
  • Project cost: €17,800
  • Project leader: DINA MADA
  • In partnership with: Women's Gathering for the Development of Sainte-Marie (RFDS)
Funder(s):
• La Guilde

Project objectives

Contributing to the improvement of’integration into the workforce of out-of-school girls and women, by supporting their project to create a micro-enterprise whose objective is their professional autonomy

Reducing gender inequalities in self-employment, due to preconceived notions, in order to improve the living conditions of women and their families

Activities

  • Equipping the Women's Center with equipment for bakery training
  • Training women at the Women's House in the micro-business management, accounting and basic office skills
  • Introduction to management and accounting
  • Implementation of activities enabling the’improvement of proficiency in the French language by women who wish to create their own micro-enterprise related to tourism (e.g. practical situations, role-playing games, level groups, reading and writing letters and emails…)
  • A steering committee will be established to monitor and evaluate the project and to create an individual monitoring file for each beneficiary.

Direct beneficiaries

16 out-of-school girls and female heads of household, who have no professional activity and need training to gain autonomy, 10 of whom were trained in 2022

Social networks

Website

Through its Microprojects division, the La Guilde association, in partnership with the French Development Agency, supports the implementation of microprojects in the service of sustainable development internationally.