Prevent Trafficking in Women thru Entrepreneurship

In organizing HERA’s own new social enterprises, we assess the demand to determine who can most benefit from HERA’s entrepreneurship training, mentoring and grants.  All women survivors of trafficking, violence, and exploitation, and young women at risk of trafficking are not the same -- even those originating from or settling in the same country.  They vary from young women at the start of their careers, who have little formal education and work experience to those who have completed MBAs and other advanced degrees and training.  Often, they have faced poverty, but others, especially refugees and displaced women, may have been well off in their earlier lives.  The women also vary from those who have already launched successful ventures to those who are still uncertain of their career plans. 

In designing our own “products”, HERA needs to respond and adapt to the local demand.  This requires both on-the-ground research and investigation and often, trialing a small pilot first.  To address the needs of a given market, we work with established local partners and collaborate closely with them.  In some places, including the UK, Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia, we have established very good, long term partnerships.  In others, such as the US, Ukraine, and France, we are still developing a track record and proving to our partners that we can contribute to their work as well.  

For our entrepreneurship training, HERA has developed two distinct models. Our 17+ training programs for 518 women in eight countries, to date, reflect one of these two models and in a few cases, a mix of the two. The first model, the “business school model”, provides intensive classroom-based, entrepreneurship training at an established university (Imperial, Sciences Po, Seattle, and IESEG).  The training is conducted by local business school professors and trainers in the predominant language of the country. This model is most relevant for young aspiring entrepreneurs, who have not yet launched their venture.  They may have a concept for a venture but are still assessing and determining their exact career plans.  

The second model, an “after hours for working woman”, is usually held for women who are poised to launch a venture or have an established business that they are ready to scale up further.  These women, already employed either part- or full-time, have work experience in the local economy. The training, focusing on specific knowledge about the local market, may be provided through a mixture of translation and the local language.  We bring in our own teams of trainers and assessors and invite local established women entrepreneurs to share their experiences. This model of training has taken place in varied settings, including a refugee/IDP camp, NGO, bilateral aid, consulting firm, orphanage, and universities.  The women, who have attended such trainings, have ranged in age from 16-60. The majority are in their late 20s to late 40s, a key time for many women entrepreneurs worldwide.  

With either model, women benefit from gaining access to a wider professional network, sharing knowledge, and from the mentoring or coaching that often ensues.  With the “after hours” model, coaching and mentoring are often informal and organized by the women themselves.  HERA has also developed the “after hours” model not only to respond to the women’s work schedules but also, to increase and encourage more women who can benefit from our grants program.  This training has extended the benefits of our grants’ program through sharing of new technologies, marketing techniques, and financial/cost analysis.  In Armenia, Ukraine, and Moldova, women with established ventures are also helping those launching new ones.  

Recent developments in London, New York and the international grants program this past quarter point to the critical importance of choosing the model and refining our operations to respond best to the local demand.  We have gained an increased appreciation of our local partners and their commitment. Without their help and input, women’s entrepreneurship to counter trafficking would not be a reality.

In London, for this year’s recruitment, Sarah Videau, our program director, has reached out to 19 counter trafficking charities, including Medaille Trust, NIA, Caritas Bakita Project, Helen Bamber Foundation, Human Trafficking Foundation, Catholic Workers Farm and Stop the Traffik, to recruit a class of 25 women.  For the first time, we are holding the three-week training at Imperial College London’s White City campus.  As this new campus is being furnished, this year’s class will be smaller than in previous years.  HERA has benefitted greatly from the support of Provost and Vice President, Professor Maggie J. Dallman, OBE and we are helping to spearhead the university’s commitment to engage in the wider community (including those affected by the fire in Grenfell Tower).  This year’s program, to be held in July, will be directed by Filipa Figueira, an economics professor from University College London.   

In NYC, a HERA team collaborated with Restore, a leading counter trafficking NGO, to develop a “business school” entrepreneurship training for trafficked women survivors at Columbia Business School.  We also reached out to Catholic Charities to recruit young refugee women, who had similar experiences of violence and exploitation.  Although we originally expected to hold this classroom-based training this July, Restore’s current client group has an average age of 38. Most do not speak English, are working full or part time and cannot afford time off work.  Restore already provides a year-long, employment readiness training so some of our classroom-based training would have been repetitive.  We offered to design an “after-hours” program; however, Restore and HERA committed to holding this program at Columbia; and Restore, to expanding their own network and outreach to a broader group of young women trafficked in and to NYC. Our final, joint decision is that we will take the time to develop the program well and based on CBS’s availability, aim for July 2019. 

The international grants program has greatly benefitted from many local partners in this year’s Annual Competition. The active outreach of Ecaterina Schilling in Ukraine and engagement of several other assessors with established relationships in Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova has led to 125 grant applications from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.  Eight international HERA assessors will review and score every application.  From July to the end of September, four teams of two assessors each will visit the top scored applications on the ground.  Former grantees, Anna Hovhannisyan and Gayane Simonyan in Armenia and Tatiana Policarpova in Ukraine organized seminars for local women entrepreneurs to apply to this year’s program.  Several NGOs, including AGBU, HDIF, and Luys Foundations in Armenia, REAP and CTC in Georgia, and Fermerieul du Sud in Moldova, recruited applicants for the 2018 Competition, our sixth to date and ninth international grants round.  By providing “after hours” entrepreneurship training sessions for 12 women in Armenia, 57 in Moldova, and 27 in Ukraine, we are also generating more interest and applications for the international grants program, helping to develop new businesses and products and services, and strengthening local networks and markets. 

By providing the appropriate entrepreneurship training model to the target population, HERA’s training, mentoring, and grants are yielding outcomes.  By 2017, we had followed up on 81% of the ventures funded from 2010 - 2016. We found that 93% have been sustained, including 63% that were successful in providing employment and opportunities for young women; and 14%, highly successful in growing their business operations 10% or more.  Tracking our 2017 UK classroom-based training, we have found that the majority are furthering their careers. Those without asylum status are gaining knowledge online and/or attending our monthly seminars. One woman has gained a fellowship to study at the SOAS (University of London), another has been accepted into management and finance programs at Bristol and SOAS, and a third has registered and opened her own counter trafficking NGO in Nigeria.  

We could not deliver these results without the generous in kind and financial support of many individuals. HERA’s overhead and administrative rates continue to be low, less than 3%.  To maintain such low rates and the trust and generosity of many private individuals, we must continue to be extremely cost effective.  That means building and developing good collaborations on the ground and meeting the effective demand with the right intervention.