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Turkmenistan Forum Looks to Empower Rural Females
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Ashbagat, Turkmenistan, March 2009-A highly successful programme for rural women in Turkmenistan should be replicated throughout the country, participants at a wrap-up conference on the project concluded. Participants also stressed the need for continued support to strengthen the small businesses already in place. Video: Women Empowerment in Turkmenistan Organized by the Women’s Union of Turkmenistan and the United Nations Development Programme, the project has centered on increasing self-employment opportunities for rural women in Dashoguz and Mary provinces. “The project demonstrated that there are a lot of opportunities for rural women and self-employment in Turkmenistan,” UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Inita Paulovica, said. More than 60 rural women, selected from a pool of 400 applicants, received training in business development and operations. With a broader goal of improving rural women’s family role, social status and income, activities included training in finance, cases studies, marketing and sales. Additionally, small grants were available to fund new businesses, which included carpet making, flower growing and ceramics. “With the mini-grant I received from the project, I bought two sewing machines,” one entrepreneur, Ogulbibi Akmammedova, said. A tailor from the Sakarchaga district, Akmammedova added, “I can now organize my business, run books and make reports to the tax inspector and market [my product].” Now, Akmammedova and her colleagues hope to sustain their successes. At the Ashbagat forum, the female entrepreneurs’ recommendations for future support included business support service centers, new forms of accessible financing such as credit unions and women’s banks, and more business trainings. For the moment, though, the project continues to yield direct and indirect results. “Not only have women become creative in organizing their own business, they also transfer their skills and knowledge to others — children, friends, neighbors and the larger society,” UNDP Resident Representative, Richard Young, said. Recent Articles
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