WildHearts Start Her Strategy
Gender inequality is a serious global issue. To address it we must invest in women throughout their lives. The WildHearts ‘StartHer’ Strategy supports women and girls in the developing world through three initiatives: Enterprise, Education and Health.
First, we financially empower women by giving them access to finance and enterprise training. Our education project then ensures children have access to essential tools for learning. Finally, our health program provides girls with basic menstrual health products and education – ensuring once they’re in school, they stay there.
75% of the world’s women are excluded from all forms of banking and credit. Due to their economic status women endure such violence that there are more women missing today than all the men killed in all the wars of the 20th century. It is the moral crime of our age. We all pay the price for this ‘financial apartheid’. In countries where girls are uneducated and women marginalised, chaos and fundamentalism are rife and poverty seemingly intractable. This is no coincidence.
WildHearts confront this issue by providing predominantly female entrepreneurs in forty developing countries with micro-loans. Women invest 90% of their income back into their families’ nutrition, healthcare and education. As a result, our investment in women transforms whole communities, making microfinance a key driver of the StartHer Strategy.
Not only do these women free themselves from the external symptoms of poverty but as they become economically empowered they free themselves from the internal effects of poverty; they learn to value and respect themselves and refuse to accept the abuses they had previously been subjected to. They become active citizens, create jobs, educate themselves and empower their own daughters. To date WildHearts have funded microfinance programmes in over forty countries enabling our predominantly female clients to start-up and grow micro-businesses.
Their example is an inspiration to us all.
Ref: Clinton Global Initiative, 2009
Aside from war, one of the main barriers to educating girls is discrimination. In Sub-Saharan Africa 80% of young women have not completed secondary education and one in three women cannot read. The implications of this are severe:
Ref: UNAIDS; USAID; UNESCO; UN Girls’ Education Initiative; World Bank; UNESCO; United Nations Department of Public Information
As a result, education for girls has been described by the United Nations as the closest thing to a “silver bullet” for sustainable growth and human development. This is why WildHearts facilitates and champions girls’ education.
A key barrier to girl’s education in the developing world is a lack of access to basic Menstrual Health Management. Girls drop out of school during their periods, missing up to 4 days of school every 4 weeks.
In South Africa, this issue is particularly prevalent;
To facilitate access to education for girls the WildHearts Foundation provide reusable sanitary pads in South Africa. The goal is to increase school attendance and reduce the implications of girls dropping out of school due to their periods.
WildHearts distribute reusable sanitary pads to girls in the hardest to reach areas of South Africa. With the continued support of our customers and partners, we will expand this life-changing initiative into neighbouring countries, ensuring girls not only go to school but stay in school.
Ref: PLoS One Medical Journal, Ugandan Study, 2016; UNICEF, 2014; World Bank, 2015