Our Women's Academy for Conscious Change is an 18-24 month leadership program and non-profit incubator in Uganda & Rwanda to help grassroots teams of women heal from trauma, step into their potential as self-aware leaders, and design and implement their own "micro-NGOs" to benefit women and girls, addressing issues such as domestic violence, literacy, or lack of safe water access. Our typical participant is a mother of 4-8 children with a primary school education who is a subsistence farmer.
Women & girls, especially in developing countries, are the caretakers of society yet are the least likely to have the training & support to advance their solutions to society's ills. During the Rwanda Genocide, in which 800,000 people were killed, the UN estimates up to 500,000 women were raped. The government estimates that 70% of the population left were women, who assumed men's role in heading households & rebuilding communities, all while dealing with cultural stigma & gender-based violence.
Our Academy for Conscious Change has 3 primary components: proven mind-body trauma healing techniques, mindfulness-based leadership practices, and social entrepreneurship skills. Participants assess community needs and learn financial management, impact measurement, and communications skills before implementing their ventures. Through our program, marginalized women gain confidence in their innate leadership skills, initiate social change, and ultimately gain the respect of their communities.
Our Academy for Conscious Change helps women develop confidence in their leadership abilities & create avenues to solve social issues that primarily face women & girls, but inevitably impact entire villages (1,200 people on average). Ventures providing safe water access directly impact up to 3,000. Ventures may work to reduce poverty, domestic violence, or sexual exploitation/rape, increase literacy or school attendance, or improve health. The ripples of impact are profound and nearly limitless.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
