Make your 2X MATCHED gift today!
This week only: Every $1 will be matched with $2 to empower women worldwide.
When she can grow a thriving business, the whole community wins.
Women, in all their diversity, are the CEOs of their households. They manage daily tasks and find ways to supplement the household income. In many cases, the women we work with are single parents, providing for children and elders on their own.
Grameen Foundation works with local partners and the women themselves—listening to their challenges and the reality of their daily life—to create customized, women-centered entrepreneurial opportunities.
As a result, they can grow their income, send their children to school, and break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
Program Spotlight: Providing Digital Financial Services—and More—in Ghana
Grameen Foundation and its partners found that gender-based violence was a common threat for women entrepreneurs in Ghana, and prevented many from growing their income. So we trained and provided start-up capital for "digital financial services plus" (DFS+) Agents: women who provide not just mobile banking transactions, but also health and gender-based violence reduction resources.
Each agent can reach more than 9,000 of their neighbors with these services. As one Agent told us, "Being a DFS+ Agent means helping community members live exemplary lives, educating them on critical social issues, and how women and men can live without conflict and violence."
43%
The average increase in income Grameen Agents earned than their peers in refugee settlements. Another 66% of the women and youth agents reported that they had gained respect within their communities.
23%
Increase in average income per hectare of cocoa seen by women farmers in Ghana who participated in Grameen's FarmGrow project, which connected farmers to soil data and climate-smart agricultural practices.
70%
Of Grameen-trained business correspondents in India reported increased income since our outreach there began in 2020. The income gap between male and female correspondents decreased by 78% over that same time period.
Globally, there are 122 women aged 25 to 34 living in poverty for every 100 men of the same age group.
Story of Change: Cherry Ann
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Cherry Ann’s father lost his job as a ride-sharing driver in Quezon City, the Philippines. Her family struggled to make ends meet for six months. Then, Cherry Ann learned that her father’s company, Grab, was looking for people to become Community Agents selling mobile data credits. This program, supported by Grameen foundation, offered new agents training and a loan to start their own digital financial services businesses.
Cherry Ann signed up. Even without an official storefront, her business is growing, and she can support her family.
To have your own business at an early age, you learn on your own. It’s empowering because I can stand on my own two feet.
— Cherry Ann, Grameen agent in the Philippines
Her Outcomes: Income and Entrepreneurship
Invest in the power and potential of women, in all their diversity.
Give to Grameen Foundation Today