Woman

Women in India are the mainstay of the family economy and the transmitters of values and traditions. However, their role is not recognized in a country where to be born a girl is often still considered a burden. This situation is worse in the poorest communities, in which women suffer double discrimination for their gender and for belonging to a low and excluded caste.

The women's development program was launched in 1982 to get the role of women in all spheres of society recognised.

• Our projects
• Objectives
• Results

OUR PROJECTS

Organising shangams

The Foundation fosters, in areas covered by its program in Andhra Pradesh, the creation of shangams or women’s associations as part of the women's development program.

These groups, of between 15 and 20 women, aim to provide mutual support, as well as offering initial financial resources and the advice needed to gain economic independence.

From an initial capital, the shangams develop their own credit system.This gives to the group the opportunity to benefit from the advantages derived from common savings.

Through these associations, women become aware of their rights and the recognition due to them from their husbands and society.

Women's development fund

The Foundation launches the Women's Development Fund once the women of the shangam have demonstrated the ability to manage their own savings.The fund is in the form of a loan that can range from 30,000 to 100,000 rupees.

The goal is for the women to be self-sufficient and be able to generate and manage their own income.

Woman to woman program

The Woman to Woman program aims to strengthen ties between people in Spain and women in India.

With the contributions made by Spanish collaborators in the Women to Women project a group of women are able to save for five years. After that period, they can use the capital and the interest on what they consider to be most suitable.

This project targets women who have created and run their own shangam and have successfully managed a Women's Development Fund.

Trade apprenticeships

The Foundation has set up workshops for sewing, fabric printing, making incense and book-binding so that women can be trained in these trades. In this way they take up a productive activity that will improve their monthly income.

Guidance and counseling program

In 2004, in the region of Kadiri, a guidance program was set up to educate women about their rights and to provide psychological support in domestic situations that sometimes involve serious abuse or mistreatment.

In that same region, the Foundation also runs a counseling center for women from which it combats prostitution. The center combines the early detection of women at risk of migration (they move to big cities in search of new economic opportunities and end up in prostitution networks), recovery of those who emigrated, awareness-raising, career counseling, medical care and training in an occupation. All of this allows the women receiving help to recover a normal life.

OBJETIVES

• Ensure the access of women to vocational and professional training.
• Create employment.
• Stop mistreatment and sexual harassment.