Women Empowered: Creating Opportunities in the DRC

Location: Democratic Republic of Congo
Key(s): Economic Empowerment, Maternal and Reproductive Health

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, endowed with a wealth of natural resources and rainforest land. However, conflict, political upheaval and instability have meant that the Congolese people see very little of that wealth. In fact, the DRC is one of the five poorest nations, with nearly 62% of the population living on less than $2.15 USD per day according to the World Bank.

In a country where 52% of women are survivors of domestic violence, two of Rockflower’s partners, SOFDI in the DRC and WomenChoice Industries in Tanzania are joining forces to create a viable pathway to increase womens and girls' skills, decision-making power and access to economic resources.

One of the key elements of Rockflower’s work is to promote a cross pollination of ideas, resources and best practices. Understanding the nuanced qualities of each partner and their individual and collective skills and capacity is at the core of our work. Tine Ward, Founder and CEO of Rockflower, was keen to bring together Lucy Odiwa of WomenChoice and Dr. Alice Lukumbu Rose of SOFDI to work together on a combination of efforts to promote menstrual health solutions whilst also promoting economic empowerment.

Lucy Odiwa, Co-Founder and CEO of WomenChoice Industries is a revolutionary entrepreneur who was inspired by her own lived experience of struggling with menstrual health and a lack of access to products to create a social enterprise that manufactures and distributes low cost, affordable menstrual hygiene products, including Salama Pads, which are reusable sanitary towels made from locally available second-hand fabric.

Dr. Alice Lukumbu Rose is the Executive Director of SOFDI, and has spent many years making strides toward gender equality by advocating for women and girls' access to decision making in positions of political, social and economic in the community.

The two organizations have created a plan to improve access to menstrual hygiene products, foster female entrepreneurship and provide economic stability to women and girls who face persistent gender-based barriers. SOFDI will be the implementing partner, WomenChoice Industries will provide products, entrepreneurial training and guidance along the way with Rockflower acting as seed funder for this endeavor.

SOFDI will identify at least 150 women, in three separate cohorts, to participate in a six month program that will educate them on menstrual and reproductive health, introduce them to Salama Pads and train them in entrepreneurship so that they can start their own businesses. Additionally, the groups will have access to a savings and lending program to fund and scale their operations. SOFDI will engage a number of women’s organizations, local government officials, and media outlets to promote this endeavor.

In phase one of the project, facilitators, including Lucy Odiwa of Womenchoice Industries, will guide participants through online and in person DreamBuilder entrepreneurship training to teach them the basics of entrepreneurship. In phase two, the facilitators will support participants as they put what they have learned into practice, holding weekly sessions to discuss challenges and share best practices. They will also promote networking and build on existing entrepreneurial networks to provide ongoing support for the women. And finally, in phase three, three to five exceptional women from various cities will be invited to Kazimia to pitch their business ideas to a number of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors and will also be trained on selling WomenChoice Industries products in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

SOFDI and WomenChoice Industries are looking forward to empowering women and girls in the DRC to become self-reliant and gain the financial independence that they deserve, whilst also improving the state of menstrual health and access to hygiene products for young girls across the country.