Anike Foundation and Destiny Community Centre in Zambia have joined forces to increase the number of employed and financially stable women and girls in the Matero region. The project helped to provide women and girls the vocational skills that they need to support themselves financially. 

From 1990 to 2021, Zambia witnessed a decrease in the labor participation rate of women and girls aged fifteen years and older. As of 2021, the female labor participation rate had fallen to sixty-nine percent, from seventy-four percent in the early 1990s. While the employment rate for women and girls has remained relatively high, this decline is concerning. It is important for women and girls to have the freedom to work professionally, so that they can enjoy financial stability, challenge, routine, and independence. 

About Destiny Community School

Destiny Community Centre was founded in the early 2000s in the community of Matero, Zambia. Matero was Zambia’s hardest hit community during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and many children were left orphaned as a result. The organization’s founders identify disadvantaged children and find enrollment for them in government schools while paying for their education. Destiny Community Centre was established with two volunteer teachers and thirty children. The organization operated in an abandoned beer hall. 

Fast forward to today, and the organization has two schools located in Lusaka and Chingola, both in Zambia. Each school has roughly four hundred students, ranging from four to eighteen years old. The school also runs intervention and education programs for youth. 

Project Focus

Destiny Community Centre aimed to purchase fourteen treadle sewing machines to update their older equipment. The organization also planned to purchase training materials for women and girls taking part in the Design and Tailoring Training course in 2022. 

Anike Foundation provided support for the project by preparing a grant proposal. The project was funded by the German Embassy in Zambia. The sewing machines needed for the initiative were provided by Al-Barakah Industries and Trading Limited, a Lebanese company with operations in Zambia. The project ran from June 1 to December 31, 2022. 

Successes and Achievements

A total of fourteen women and girls enrolled in the project. At the end of the six-month period, they were able to manufacture a variety of products, including women’s dresses and skirts, school uniforms, jerseys, and bedspreads. They have learned essential vocational skills that will gain them a foot in the door when they apply to jobs and start their own businesses. These women and girls now have the potential to sustain themselves financially and maintain a job. 

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