Women empowerment
Women, properly supported, are able to foster and strengthen the person-community bond with special commitment and involvement. Their personal development turns into development for the whole community
A multi-sectoral approach
AVSI’s actions to foster women empowerment are defined by a strong commitment to act in sinergy on different sectors, which means acting on multiple levels in an integrated way. Some of the main sectors we work in:
- Education and awareness-raising
- Fight against gender-based violence
- Economic strengthening
- Peace building
- Health
- Vocational training
- Agricolture, food security, nutrition
- Saving groups
- Income-generating activities
- Energy, water and environment
- Leadership building
We need to start from the bottom up to foster a mindset shift, by carrying out widespread and long-term interventions in order to spark cultural change, otherwise even modifying the legislation will have no real impact
AVSI’s actions
- A holistic approach aimed at the person, targeting all personal and relational dimensions (family, community): it is fundamental to recognize that all beneficiaries, despite their vulnerability, represent a potential resource
- Contextualization and attention to the specific needs of each individual person by eliciting creativity
- Women participation – they should be involved in selecting the actions to carry out and throughout the project, by using a participatory and community-based methodology
- Men involvement – not only in awareness-raising activities, but also in trainings, in the organization of income-generating activities, and financial management
- Inclusion of civil society organizations in actions aimed at fighting gender-based violence
- Expertise in “social work” for women victims of violence and civil society support for the prevention of gender-based violence
- Strengthening women’s organizations in communities to enable women and girls to be leading actors in social change and actively participate in public life
- Relationship fostering, that can create space for reflection, a key element of women’s empowerment
- Implicit “advocacy”: activities that benefit female protagonists but also spread cultural messages
