Training 1,500 Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan

The pandemic and lockdown measures have led to postponement of Moqah Foundation’s three Enterprise Trainings scheduled for 2020. Women have been extraordinarily affected following tremendous disruption in their lives. We are slowly learning about the hardships confronting women as a result of the pandemic. Our team has been working to ensure that women are able to remain resilient during and following the crisis.

With the reopening of all educational, technical and vocational institutions, the training team conducted an orientation session on 28 February 2021, focusing on women’s economic empowerment with some promising approaches. including provision of training in business strategies with emphasis on business resilience versus growth, building foundational skills that better equip women. The aim of the session was to create awareness and motivate the participants to attend the upcoming enterprise development workshop. The participants discussed the challenges facing them, and brainstormed ways to overcome them.

The number of participants was reduced to less than half, to ensure social distancing to control the spread of virus, taking extra care for the safety of our participants and training staff.

We are hoping that with the reduction in Covid-19 cases and the possibility of returning to full normal activity in the near future, we will be able to resume our trainings.

Thank you for supporting us and being our partners in helping women to overcome the challenges they face, improving their mental health and their standard of living.

 As COVID-19 capsizes financial markets, our women entrepreneurs who had just started their businesses, are struggling to stay afloat. The pandemic has disproportionately affected these impoverished women who remain quarantined without any social or financial support.  They are facing increased chances of living in poverty as a result of losing their businesses.  With household resources scarce, capital that would normally be used their businesses has to be reallocated to other purposes, driven by domestic dynamics.

 An approach to fighting the virus means supporting these communities most at risk of infection and economic consequences. We are doing everything we can to alleviate damage from the pandemic and continue to support them by investing in their entrepreneurial ventures. Some are supplying and selling food items to schools in the neighborhood, among our staff members and the community, while one of them, who was sewing clothes, is now sewing masks and selling them in the neighborhood.

 Our committed donors and volunteers continue to provide food rations as they go door to door where these women live, with words of encouragement from a six-foot distance, at the same time marketing their products.

  We request our donors to take strong actions to build back better by helping channel funds to underserved women and financing women-owned businesses.