WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM(WEP)
The RoSF Women Empowerment Program (WEP) is designed to provide business and live support services to widows who are the breadwinners of their families. Through this intervention the Foundation continues to create conditions that enable our widows to lead lives with a reasonable degree of stability, support and access to resources that are required to cater for their basic needs, empowering them to find satisfaction in life and raise their children. The Women Empowerment Program is delivered through seven initiatives:
- Microcredit Scheme (MICS):
The need for a microcredit scheme which can deliver the world’s smallest loans to the world’s poorest people has in recent years become increasingly recognised. The RoSF Microcredit Scheme provides interest free loans to widows with a flexible repayment plan that spans over a period of 18 months. This program has been effective in boosting the economic activities of our widows, increasing their household income and enabling them to cater for their families. To encourage the timely repayment of the loans, the widows are grouped into Self-Help-Groups (SHGs).
- Skills Acquisition & Vocational Scheme (SAVS):
Widows are most times the breadwinners of their family’s and therefore require assistance in alleviating the heavy financial burdens they carry. They need skill acquisition, long term support and income generating activities. The RoSF Skills Acquisition & Vocational Scheme (SAVS) is designed to provide sustainable income generating skills for widows and vulnerable women who are the breadwinners of their families.
- Small and Medium Enterprise (SAME):
The RoSF Small and Medium Enterprise (SAME) program was created to enhance self-initiatives and encourage women, especially widows to establish small and medium enterprises as an effective income generating activity. SAME works to assist widow entrepreneurs by providing them with trainings and the follow-ups required for them to succeed in their chosen trade or profession. The Rose of Sharon Foundation partners with developmental organizations, civil society and the private sector to deliver this program.
- RoSF Live Support Scheme (RLSS):At RoSF, we understand that a little help at a crucial moment can change the lives of widows and their families. Therefore, we provide live support through counselling as well as monthly allowances for non-active widows and orphans.
- Agric-Business Scheme (ABS):The RoSF Agric-Business Scheme (ABS) is designed to empower rural widows as well as vulnerable women to work in the agricultural sector with access to finance, knowledge and trainings which will enable them have sustainable livelihoods through farming, guarantying food security for their children.
- Legal Support Services (LSS):To help widows and their children assess their late husband’s/father’s assets and have claims to his gratuity the RoSF provides free legal consultations to hundreds of widows and orphans.
- RoSF Shelter Program (RSP):The RoSF Shelter Program is designed to provide refuge for widows, their children and orphans. Many widows in Nigeria and across Africa are forced out of their dwellings by their in-laws and rendered homeless. The Rose of Sharon Foundation, from inception till date, has helped several widows and their children to secure decent accommodation.