The International Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide on March 8 and the FPSC, once again, wanted to join this celebration, paying them tribute..
One of the corporate goals of the Foundation is to promote the advancement of women in all sectors and activities, to increase social participation and to encourage their access to decision-making. Only in this way is achieved true development in the world.
One example is the project “Training of trainers on gender programme aimed at local development agents” that Macarena Cotelo, Project Director of the FPSC, presented, as a speaker, at the “Women’s participation in public life in North Africa and Middle East countries” jointly organized by the Spanish Cooperation and the MENA-OECD program last March 5, on the occasion of the celebration of International Women’s Day.
Photo: AECID
This project, funded by the Spanish Cooperation, which was developed during the years 2001-2004, tried to address chronic gaps and deficiencies in knowledge and competences in gender and development in the Arab region. The program targeted NGOs across the Mashreq / Maghreb Arab region, a handout on Gender and Development was developed, taking into account the local context and local needs of everybody.
Since its inception, the FPSC incorporated into their projects a gender component as an essential part thereof, for the equal participation of men and women. But also many of their activities are directed exclusively to women’s empowerment. Thus, at present, the FPSC develops three projects in Lebanon, Guatemala and Kazakhstan for the empowerment of women, so that they can enter the labour market and the production process, including by the creation of micro enterprises.
“Strengthening the social and economic impacts of Lebanese women in rural areas, through the development of tourism and micro enterprises”, which aims to contribute to the emancipation and economic role of women, and stop the heavy migration, through the creation of employment in the tourism sector. Funded by the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Italia e Mediterraneo, the project includes an extensive program of professional training.
And thanks to funding from the Italian Episcopal Conference, two projects are underway, the first, “Get Trained, Get Employed”, aimed at young women Kazakh with low income, aged 16 to19, studying the specialty in the services sector (Hotels, Restaurants and Catering) in professional schools. It is intended to strengthen and expand the professional skills of the students to facilitate their integration into the working world, so that they transmit the knowledge and values acquired during their training.
The second, which has recently begun, “Improving the productive and entrepreneurial capacities of indigenous women with low income in three departments of Guatemala for their incorporation into the production process with handmade quality products”, aims to help indigenous women in situation of poverty to joining the labor market, through training in catering; commercial bakery; commercial confectionary; typical sweets; jellies, jams; and textiles (dressmaking, weaving, embroidery) in the Training Centre in Las Gravileas. Business management training will also be provided.
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