Empower 20 unemployed Spanish women

840$...

840$ might be a lot or very little for you. But the fact is that with 840$ you can change the entire future of seven persons; specifically, the future of seven unemployed Spanish women who entered AFAEMME's empowerment program. Seven unemployed Spanish women who thanks to the donation of committed people all over the world have accessed business start-up advice and mentoring so to become successful entrepreneurs.

If reading our project reports you already know about Maria, Iraida, Inmaculada, Carolina, Carlota, Nuria and Isabel; the seven former unemployed women who started their path towards economic empowerment months ago and who are now closer to successfully manage their own businesses. Maria, the nurse who was working on the idea of a center for alternative therapies called "Espai Jayanti", already signed the partnership contracts with the doctors for the center and is now working on the clinic which will be opened to the public on September 28th. The website and Facebook page are also about to be launched. Iraida, will launch her online health portal OMINT very soon. Inmaculada is already offering her professional development method to schools and universities while looking for funding to develop the online method. Carolina is still receiving mentoring from our AFAEMME mentor Beatriz in order to improve her fundraising skills to attract investors for opening a restaurant. And also Carlota is working with Beatriz on an action plan to further develop the idea of an event planning company. Nuria will launch her online sales platform at the end of the year. And Isabel already has her osteopathy and reflexology clinic opened and has started visiting clients.

These are the good news. The bad news is that there are much more unemployed women in the pipeline to access a program and which need response NOW. This is why AFAEMME decided to apply for funding to develop an entire project to support these women. With this we close our project at Global Giving with a big THANK YOU to the platform itself for enabling this kind of projects and especially to all those who decided to support Maria, Iraida, Inmaculada, Carolina, Carlota, Nuria and Isabel. YOU all empowered these women. YOU gave them a second chance. THANK YOU.

This 2016 is the year of hope. The year in which entrepreneurship becomes an expression of a better future for several long term unemployed women in Spain through this project.

In our previous report we already wrote about Iraida, Inmaculada, Nuria, Carolina, Carlota and Isabel, the six women of different ages who were not able to reenter or enter the Spanish labour market and who were supported through our program to become future entrepreneurs, by working on their business ideas and developing their confidence and skills.

The six participants are now closer to their new lives as businesswomen: Iraida will launch her online health portal this July 1st; Carolina currently has the opportunity to take a course on restoration before launching her business; and Isabel is analysing the target audience of her future company. And while Inma is still struggling with getting the necessary funds to finance the launch of her business (lack of funding is one of the main barriers who women entrepreneurs from all over the world report), Nuria has almost everything done and will start her business in January 2017.

And thanks to all of you keeping giving, we had a seventh participant entering the program: Maria (50) who after losing her long-term employment as nurse worked hard with our mentor Beatriz and already has her business plan (BP) done and approved. Her business is a center for alternative therapies based in Premià de Dalt (Catalonia). Maria is now working with Beatriz on how to best establish and regulate the partnership with the doctors and trainers who will participate in the business.

This year will be a positive year. For you and us who contributed to improve the lives of other people but especially for these women themselves who really got a second chance.

Last year at this time Iraida (53), Inmaculada (45), Nuria (21), Carolina (21), Carlota (22) and Isabel (55) were six very demotivated women living in Barcelona, Spain. Demotivated because, despite of being very skilled and all holding a university degree, they were unable to find a job in order to maintain their economic independency. Some of them had strong difficulties in reentering the labour market after having lost their jobs during the economic crisis and others just couldn’t find a job after graduating and were seriously considering emigrating to another country. And this situation was starting to affect also their wellbeing causing sadness, lack of self-confidence and other related problems.

Now, one year later, we are standing in front of six strong and resolute women entrepreneurs. And this, thanks to this program and to YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS which allowed us to provide Iraida, Inmaculada, Nuria, Carolina, Carlota and Isabel with business advice and mentoring.

With Iraida we have worked intensively on her business plan for an online health portal. The idea was very promising and after concluding a professional business plan and several mentoring sessions and thanks to Iraida’s hard work and determination we have managed it to get 100.000.- EUROS of funding for her to realize her dream and start working on the portal - Wow! Internet has also been a crucial part of Inmaculada’s business idea: she has developed a method (also available online) to help people with their professional development choices, especially young students. Through our work with her, Inma has now a fully professional business plan clearly showing the strengths of her project that will help us to look for funding to put the project in practice. Carolina loves food and she has always dreamed about having her own restaurant. For her, the crisis has been an opportunity to make her dream a reality as she realized that her studies provided her with a good background but that what she really wants is to start with the restaurant. With the business plan done we are now preparing her through mentoring to get investors for her culinary dream on board. With Carlota we have just finished the business plan for an event planning company and are now testing her target. Nuria is working with us on a business plan for an online sales platform and Isabel is receiving mentoring sessions to better develop her project of chiropraxis and reflexology so to attract investors.

In Spain there are much more Iraidas, Inmaculadas, Carolinas, Carlotas, Nurias and Isabels. Imagine how many wonderful business ideas to explore with them! Aren’t you curious? 

Unemployment is still a problem in Spain. In October 2015 the unemployment rate was at 21,6%, 20,5% for men and 22,8% for women. And the situation is still worst for the young, with an unemployment rate of 47,7%.

In our previous project report we mentioned the case of Gina, a young woman who was unable to find a job after graduating and who came to our Association with the idea of opening an interior design and refurbishment business. After going through training, mentoring and business advice she finally started her activity and has today a successful company with a constantly growing turnover. This is to show how easily we can make a woman’s life better only through real support and by tapping her potential and developing it. In every unemployed woman there is wide range of hidden opportunities.

Thanks to different generous donations we are now ready to start implementing this program which aims at helping unemployed women to boost their self-confidence and then working intensively with them on transforming their business ideas into professional business plans and supporting them until real business creation. We have already selected 3 unemployed women from different ages and are about to select a fourth one to work with them on their business ideas (business planning and mentoring): one wants to open a holistic medicine and health portal, another has the idea of developing an analysis system to reveal real competences of young students for employment guidance, and the third wants to start a business of social media management.

Our adviser and mentor Beatriz is ready. Let’s get started!

At the beginning of 2014 The Guardian published an article called “Spain's jobless women become the boss to beat the recession”. This article started with the shocking statement: “When it comes to finding a job in Europe, not all citizens are born equal. If you are Spanish you have a one in four chance of being unemployed, rising to one in two if you are young. And if you are a young woman in Spain? The odds of finding yourself among the ranks of the unemployed are even higher, at 54.7%.” 

Gina is part of the women mentioned in this article. After graduating in business administration she has been unable to find a job for almost one year. She even tried to access administrative assistant positions (she holds a vocational training grade as secretary/assistant) but she was rejected because of being "too qualified". When she came to our Association, she had a very little self-esteem but she wanted to create her own job in something she was really passionate: refurbishment and interior design. After half a year of training, mentoring and business advice she finally started her activity at the end of 2014. Now, almost one year later, we are proud to say that her company's turnover is constantly growing and that her list of clients is getting longer and longer.

Through our programs for unemployed Spanish women we are trying to tap the potential of women like Gina by first helping these women to boost their self-confidence and then working intensively with them on transforming their business ideas into professional business plans and supporting them until real business creation. As this requires an important time investment for our experts, business advisors and mentors we need your support. Do you want to be behind such successful entrepreneurs as Gina? So please don't miss the opportunity of helping these women to start a new life; a life in which these women's talents, motivation and commitment are appreciated and tapped. We need your support NOW in order to start the program. Let us tell more positive stories about successful women entrepreneurs!

Links:

• Gina's work