Measurement: Grants

Through Small Seed Grants, Women Begin the Journey Toward Empowerment and Economic Security

Salvadoran Enterprises for Women (SEW) was recognized as a 501(c) (3) public charity by the Internal Revenue Service effective August 15, 2003 and began making grants to women's groups the same year. SEW works mostly with groups in isolated, rural areas of El Salvador where it is most difficult for women to have access to employment.

Since beginning, Salvadoran Enterprises for Women (SEW) has made grants to twelve women's groups. Each small business is different in the kinds of materials required to begin and be sustained. All businesses, however, require training, equipment and start up costs.

In one agrarian community, hoses and pipes were needed to connect a water source at the top of a mountain to community gardens in the valley below. Besides storage and display cases for breads and sweet rolls, the bakery SEW funded needed a bicycle with a large basket, the traditional way for bakers to get their goods to market in El Salvador.

The women's businesses produce things needed locally. Because all businesses need markets to succeed, SEW staff in El Salvador assist with strategic planning to help new entrepreneurs identify potential retail outlets for the goods produced. Sometimes the market is a shelf in the town's community center; sometimes it is a table in a regional “feria” or fair. In two locations, SEW women's businesses have access to civic and municipality centers. One sewing group began taking clothing orders as towns people learned the clothing is well made and produced at the time promised.

Grant awards from SEW range from $200 for training in the production of natural medicines to $10,540 to set-up a new sewing business. After a natural medicine group received a training grant, the same group later received a second grant to purchase washing pans, knives, water jugs, sieves and containers to expand production. An initial grant for an incubator for chickens strengthened a chicken and egg project managed by seven women. Two years later, the group was ready to expand. With another SEW grant, they now have a poultry farm from which the women sell 330 eggs a day. SEW respects the uniqueness of each women's group and the variety of business needs. The goal however remains the same: a motivated group of women, a viable business plan, the opportunity for markets, development of competence and self-esteem, and production of goods needed in the local community.