Seventeen women from rural areas are supported by the Joint Integrated Local Development Program to start and develop businesses. They received grant certificates worth about US$5,000 each at a ceremony staged within the Exhibition “Farmer 2015”, where about 40 women entrepreneurs displayed the goods they produce at a common stand under the theme “Good business at home”, IPN reports.
The Program is implemented by the Government in partnership with the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), with financial support from the Governments of Denmark and Sweden. The Program supports 30 target communities to develop the local economic environment within the National Decentralization Strategy of Moldova that was approved by Parliament in April 2012.
“Through the agency of the support provided by the Program, we now have 17 women who are ready to start or extend businesses. We are confident that these women will become more confident and will obtain higher incomes and welfare for their families following the gained support. Moreover, we are confident that this support will help create workplaces and will contribute to increasing the local incomes in communities,” said UN Women Country Representative for Moldova Ulziisuren Jamsran.
UNDP Moldova Deputy Resident Representative Narine Sahakyan said the event offers the possibility of admiring the products made by the entrepreneurs who benefitted from support, including financial, and developed businesses during half a year. On the other hand, it is an occasion for contributing to developing new businesses initiated by women in rural areas and these women will be able to grow as entrepreneurs, near children and in their country.
The recipients of grants run or are yet to start businesses in beekeeping, animal breeding, food processing, horticulture, flower growing, handcrafting, clothing, service provision and other sectors. Liubovi Zara, from Ciuciuleni village of Hancesti district who is the mother of five, also got a grant. She intends to set up a coypu and rabbit farm. “I have long wanted to start a business that would enable me to stay near my children and to offer them a safe future. Regretfully, we need investments to start this business. The coypus are very capricious, but the demand for their meat and fur is growing in Moldova. I’m thus sure of the success of this business,” she stated.
In April, the Joint Integrated Local Development Program provided another 38 grants of up to US$5,000 each. The 38 entrepreneurs who exhibited their goods at the common stand at “Farmer 2015” created 140 new workplaces in the 30 partner communities. 300 entrepreneurs benefitted from training in business within the Program.
