GES Project Challenge: Helping Women Start Businesses in Ecuador

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-04-30 08:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Summary: A team of five MIT students will work with a community of women in Pascuales, Ecuador during summer 2009 to help them start businesses by providing skills training, guidance, and financial support.

Project Needs and Beneficiaries: The local community of Pascuales has many street children. Children of Guayaquil has been working to address this problem by constructing a community center and providing educational workshops in the community. Now, a team of MIT students from MIT International Development Consulting will be assisting the NGO to help the women in Pascuales - the mothers of these disadvantaged children - to start businesses in order to provide for the healthcare, education, and safety of the street children.

Activities: We will do three things to improve the financial options and help the women generate income: 1) Create a savings opportunity program. 2) Help the women obtain loans for their businesses. 3) Help the women start businesses.

Resources:

Each weekday between now and May 8th, I'll be posting one or two project profiles of students participating in the annual Global Engagement Summit-GlobalGiving Project Challenge. The Challenge is a chance for students from around the world to raise money for and spread awareness about their projects. Students that mobilize also have a chance for additional matching resources. If you're interested in supporting this work, Tweet or blog about it or visit the project homepage on GlobalGiving.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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