Triumphant Hand of Mercy Initiative NPC

Unleashing Girls Potential in STEM

Empowering Women Entrepreneurship

By Dorcas Tshuma

20172323 Oasis Security Estate, Kempton Park 1619, Johannesburg

PROJECT TEAM

Project Team Leader: Dorcas Tshuma -Founder of THOMI AFRICA

PROJECT NAME

Unleashing Girls’ Potential in STEM and Empowering Young Women Entrepreneurship

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

With the largest global youth population ever, millions of today's youth are being failed by the

world. They are bearing the burden of multiple inequalities—social, economic and political.

They lack access to basic rights and far too many do not have a genuine chance to reach

their potential in life. These multiple inequalities fall most heavily on young people, in

particular women, who in many places around the world face prejudice and discrimination.

Often, youth suffer multiple or intersectional discrimination, creating strong barriers to

meaningful participation in society.

Economic inequality affects young people, through high rates of youth unemployment, young

women being affected most, due to gender inequality. Within these social, economic and

political inequalities, there are young people who manage to find their own solutions to

challenges of joblessness and hopelessness, by initiating small and medium-scale

enterprises, through innovation, creativity and perseverance. But they lack appropriate

entrepreneurship training and support.

In South Africa one of the major problems identified by youth is the lack of education for

entrepreneurship. As one entrepreneur pointed out, nothing from her schooling taught her

how to start a business. For that, many experts concluded in their studies that

entrepreneurship is a vital skill for the 21st century youth, many of whom will be forced into

self-employment or enterprise creation in order to survive.

In that global context, the project of “Young Women and Girls Empowerment” would like to

achieve two interlinked objectives: (a) empowering young women in entrepreneurship and

(b) unleash girl’s potential in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

“Encouraging entrepreneurship is one of the most impactful steps we can take in addressing

some of the disparities we see today,” said UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi

Puri. “Empowering young women to become not only wage-earners but also job-creators is

imperative for achieving the 2030 Agenda and for eradicating poverty,” she added.

1. Empowering Young Women and Girls in EntrepreneurshipAs highlighted in many reports of international institutions, no single country has included

entrepreneurship education in its national, assessed curriculum. Therefore, young people, in

particular, young women and girls, who wish to start a business, do not know where to start

from.

The present project would like to offer free business plan creation training, through

workshops and dissemination of information to young business women and potential

entrepreneurs with or without business ideas. The training will aim at providing appropriate

tools for women to become more efficient, productive and successful.

The other challenge expressed by youth is the lack of access to capital. Many women

entrepreneurs will tell that the doors of major banks are firmly shut against young people, in

particular women. In addition, if those young entrepreneurs can get a loan from MFIs, they

are charged exorbitant interest rates of 5-15% a month. This makes it all but impossible for

young women to start a business.

Taking into account those important challenges, we will also call upon some banks

representatives to present the situation of how young women entrepreneurs can benefit from

funding from those banks and institutions. Therefore, the project will explore the realty of the

South African money market and how resources benefit to young women and girls`

entrepreneurs.

2. Promoting STEM in school girls

The second fold of the project will focus on instilling a love for STEM in school girls and

engage the potential of young girls to develop their untapped interests in science;

technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields in order for them to be

linked to opportunities in tertiary education.

A gender benchmarking study, conducted by Women in Science & Technology (WISAT) has

found that the levels of female representation in the science, technology and innovation(STI)

fields in the world’s leading economies were not only “alarmingly low”, but also on the decline.

In South Africa, the study concluded that, while women had more opportunities available to

them than ever before, their participation in the STI workforce remained low. Women remained

severely under-represented in degree programmes for engineering, physics and computer

science. However, the country demonstrated comparatively high rates of women employed on

corporate boards and as science academy members. Academy of Science of South

Africa Executive Officer Professor Roseanne Diab said “mentoring activities would be critical in

changing the status quo”.

The project would like to tackle this challenge and promote STEM in young girls at school.

THE PROJECT The “Young Women and Girls Empowerment in Entrepreneurship and STEM” Project will be

implemented in two phases:

PHASE 1: March – April 2017: Launching WorkshopThe workshop is scheduled for end of March 2017 for approximately 150 participants, of

which 100 young business women and girls and 50 young girls in schools, from Grade 1 to

Grade 12.

This phase will pursue the following objectives:

a) Assessment of key challenges faced by young women entrepreneurs in urban areas,

and identify policy measures to address those challenges

b) Encourage the organisations/participants to join and register on empowerwomen.org

c) Disseminate information about the need for women economic empowerment and

share knowledge on women’s economic rights.

d) Awareness: To create awareness in STEM

e) STEM-Focused: To see more changes in attitude in girls taking STEM related

courses.

f) Real-World: To connect classroom lessons to real-world problems and to encourage

inquiry and collaborative learning

g) Readiness: To help students to be college/university and career ready and foster

cross-sector partnerships that provide informal learning opportunities

H) Breaking Cultural Strongholds: To empower and support a culture that nurtures and

supports innovative STEM professionals, and brings businesses, schools, non-

profits, and other community institutions together to prepare students and

communities for 21st century jobs.

On the area of entrepreneurship, the objective of the workshops aims at turning job seekers

into job creators by providing women entrepreneurs and potential investors with an

integrated support package to under-served young women entrepreneurs with a combination

of training, information on access to capital, mentoring and other business development

services.

On the area of STEM, we would run a career fair workshop for students and invite speakers

(women) from STEM represented organisations like mining, engineering, electrical sectors to

garner the interest of young minds in the hopes that it will help them throughout their lives.

During the workshop students will learn about programming, robotics and science through

hands on activities.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Target Group

TargetNumber Women & Girls Specific Target

First Phase of the Project

i 100 Young Women, Young at

heart, Enterprising girls

Entrepreneurs, Micro

entrepreneurs, School

leavers

ii

50 Girls in Schools ~ Urban

Areas Grade 1 to grade 12

Second Phase of the Project

iv +500 Schools in Rural Areas Grade 1 to grade 12

v +500 Remote Rural Community The underprivileged

On the second phase the project will target girls in underprivileged primary and secondary

schools including underprivileged women in remote community. We believe that

empowerment can never happen among the adult women until and unless they are

empowered from the very elementary level.

PHASE 2: April 2017 – February 2018: Implementation of Outcomes of the First Phase

In particular, the project will pursue the following objectives:

a) Organize training sessions for young women entrepreneurs in basic tools for

business, marketing, financial literacy, inheritance rights, property rights and others

(September 2017);

b) Build partnerships with formal training institutions, credit institutions and international

and financial institutions to give priority to young women entrepreneurs, both in urban

and rural areas.

c) Sponsorship/Grants: To sponsor and give grants to girls pursuing stem related

courses

d) Future Oriented: To bridge the gap between our education system and the needs of

today’s workforce

e) Equitable: To make STEM literacy and economic opportunity attainable for ALL

students especially women and girls.

f) Scalable & Sustainable: To drive educational innovation and economic alignment in a

coordinated and methodical way

g) Innovative: To give communities the tools needed for transformative changes to

STEM education and to produce critical thinkers, innovators and problem-solvers to

help achieve SDGs

h) Collaborative: To develop a state-wide network for STEM excellence through local,

state, and national networks and evidence-based research

EXPECTED RESULTS

During the first phase, participants to the workshop will receive a questionnaire to list all

key challenges faced in doing business in their respective areas. From those questionnaires,

a full set of key challenges will be compiled in a document (report). In addition, the report will

contain recommendations on the practical measures needed to address those challenges. A

comprehensive report will be prepared by the project team;

During the second phase, several training sessions will be organized on themes to be

identified by the project. It is expected to reach out at least more than 500 young women

entrepreneurs.

i) To increase student (girls) STEM ability, engagement, participation and aspiration.

ii) To increasing teacher capacity and STEM teaching quality

iii) To support STEM education opportunities within school systems

iv) To facilitate effective partnerships with tertiary education providers, business and

industry

ESTIMATED BUDGET USD $Campaign Material, banners, brochures $1,458.33

Campaign Shirts for 250 people $3,458.40

Conference Halls Hire $6,459.70

Publicity Awareness (Social Media, Posters,

Photography) $8 520,00

Feeding, Drinks, Snack and Teas $ 2940,00

Logistics and Transportation for one day $5,766,00

Prizes, Certificates for Volunteers $1,500,00

Laptops, Calculators, Supplies for STEM Courses $26,500.00

Sub Total $56,602.43

Administrative miscellaneous expenses 10% $5,660.24

Grand Total $62,262.67

PARTNERSHIP

The project will establish partnerships, not only with the below-mentioned individuals or/and

institutions, but also with other civil society organizations, both in South Africa and in other

regions of the world. Whenever possible, the team leaders will participate in conferences

and workshops to present the project and get support.

In addition, the team will undertake sensitization campaigns and raising awareness towards

universities and vocational training institutions, local banks and financial institutions, as well

as international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, European

Union and other development partners, on the need to empower young women

entrepreneurs, in urban and rural areas. If possible, the project will conclude agreements

with key institutions, with a set of measures and actions to be taken.

PARTNERSHIPS AREA OF EXPERTISE

- THOMI AFRICA, NGO for Women Empowerment- Facilitation of workshops,

seminars to ensure smooth floor of the project

- DuPont, a science company and The P-STEM Foundation as STEM advocacy

organisation founded to promote STEM , their focus would be highlighting STEM

opportunities, researching and quantifying attitudes to STEM as well as working at

changing perception at grass root levels by informing, promoting communities, grass

root leaners interested in STEM.

- Government Department of Women- the role of this department of government would

be to offer strategic advise on monitoring and evaluation and collaborate on future

initiatives on Women in STEM.

- Researcher/ Women rights Activist will give insight on the issues at the heart of

feminist research, advocacy and women empowerment

- Local banks to avail special loan products for women to start their own business

- Educator/Teacher , her role would be to enrich a young generation of girls to help

them to build self-confidence and inculcate a sense of empowerment not just the

young girls themselves but also boys have to wake up to a world that is moving

towards equality and equity. We believe that elementary school teacher plays a vital

role in fostering women empowerment.

APPROACH

For this project, the participatory approach will be adopted, whereby all stakeholders (young

women entrepreneurs, institutions, public and private, civil society organizations, will be

involved. The team will organize several meetings with those institutions.

In that regard, activities to be organized will comprise:

- Questionnaire and Compendium of data

- Reports of discussions with stakeholders

- Resource mobilization for identified projects

We will also make use the following approach to instil the love for STEM in girls and to

identify barriers on why girls shun away from pursuing STEM related courses

● Logical approach & Participatory action approach

● Quantitative approach & Qualitative approach

● Direct interaction with individuals girls on a one to one basis

● Direct interaction with individuals girls in a group setting as well

i) Invite female Leaders in STEM industries during workshops to address and

encourage the students

ii) Conduct train-the-trainer workshop that can build a pool of competent instructors

who will teach the importance of STEM to students

iii) During the seminar, all target students will have the opportunity to interact with

STEM experts in the field to develop engineering skills to solve multiple real world

engineering challenges. We believe this will instill the love for STEM

iv) During seminars we will issue out questionnaires to establish reasons why girls

shy away from pursuing STEM related courses and many more questions.

v) We will provide students with reference materials and invite them to participate in

an information session

vi) To reach out to the underprivileged women in the remote community, we will

identify individuals/cross-sector groups in the community to serve as a steering

committee for STEM Community engagement. Questionnaires will be sent out to

them as well with relevant questions

DELIVERABLES

- Evaluation report of the workshop

- Report on empowerment of young women entrepreneurs;

- Set of indicators for follow-up and coordination of future activities

- Establishment of a network of identified young women entrepreneurs

TIMEFRAME FOR THE FIRST PHASE

Period: Action:

1 Jan - 15 Jan 2017 Champion-Mentor meeting; brainstorming of ideas; project defined.

15 Jan - 1 Feb 2017 Project conceptualized; pre-implementation preparations; activity

scheduled; initial communication with external stakeholders. Grant

seeking Proposals, mobilizing funding, Communicate with external

stakeholders, Request meeting with banks, UN Women South Africa

and other local CSOs, Sending invitations for the workshop in

Johannesburg

1 Feb - 31 Mar 2017 Project implementation; project monitoring.

1 Apr - 10 Apr 2017 Project evaluation; project reporting.

INDICATORS

Process indicator:

- The rate of girls interested in pursuing STEM related course after the project

- Number of challenges by importance

- Estimate of financial needs for empowerment

Outcome Indicator:

- Proportion of girls interested in STEM as compared to boys

- Areas of activity for young entrepreneurs: trade, investment, cross-border trade,

services, etc

Impact Indicator:

- Periodical surveys on status of young women entrepreneurs

- Changes in attitudes towards STEM courses after the project

- Key institutions that can support the empowerment of young women

MEASURING RESULTS

Timeline- First Week of April 2017

To measure the result and the impact of the project to see if the students understood the

importance of STEM, we will make a follow up to collect the data in schools using the

following methods;

i) Questionnaires- Series of questions about STEM will be drafted

ii) Interviews- Conduct interviews with the selected few students from each school

as well as our target community

iii) Online surveys will be designed