HERA promotes women's entrepreneurship and employment with grants, training, and mentoring to prevent all forms of economic exploitation. HERA has trained over 1100 people: women survivors or at risk of trafficking, mentors, and entrepreneurs in nine countries. HERA has awarded 401 grants to women-owned ventures that created new employment for 665 young women in regions to prevent dangerous migration in Central/Eastern Europe. HERA is also helping its Ukraine grantees with restarting businesses.
Each year young women are exploited and trafficked across international borders and within their own countries. Risk factors include unemployment, war, poverty, and the responsibilities of providing for children, the elderly and extended families. Many want to build better lives and for those fleeing conflict, survive . Through force, deception, and coercion, traffickers and smugglers exploit young women's economic vulnerabilities and ambitions to exploit, torture, and enslave.
HERA's supports women entrepreneurs in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine to scale up their micro-enterprises to train and employ young women at risk of dangerous migration, trafficking and exploitation. HERA also assists its former grantees fleeing conflict to restart their ventures.
To date HERA has awarded 401 grants to women's ventures in Central and Eastern Europe generating at least 665 new jobs for women at risk of dangerous migration. HERA has trained over 1100 people in nine countries on entrepreneurship, business, and/or mentoring. HERA has evaluated 75% of its grantees a year or more later. Of those evaluated, 96% of the grantees supported by HERA are still operating a year or more later and 65% have grown and/or provided new employment.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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