It’s been an exciting couple of weeks at the Women’s Program, as we have started our second year of financial education classes in Huaycán. The goal of the program is to empower women to achieve economic independence by starting their own business. We have welcomed twenty-one aspiring female entrepreneurs to the program, who want to learn new skills to either start a business or expand an existing one. Their business ideas include handmade bracelets, Huaycán themed T-shirts, and natural cosmetics.
This year, for the first time, we have incorporated a self-esteem course into our program. This came from the initiative of a local volunteer, Maria Huallpa. She believed the self-esteem classes would be an excellent addition to the finance program. Last year, we did a small self-esteem workshop as part of the preparation for our yearly business competition and received great feedback from the women, who said the workshop helped them feel much more confident during their presentation. We then realized we should make self-esteem classes a bigger part of our program.
Self-esteem is extremely important for entrepreneurs. The decision to start a business requires entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and to believe that they are capable of running a successful business. All business interactions, from sales to networking to delivering a pitch, require confidence and self-esteem. Entrepreneurs have to be able to sell themselves as well as their product. They need to be able to trust their skills and abilities to be able to make good decisions, take risks when appropriate and recover from setbacks.
Self-esteem is even more critical for female entrepreneurs, as many women face stigma and discrimination in both their personal and professional lives, which can cause their confidence to take a knock. Studies have highlighted self-esteem as a major barrier that women face when setting up their own businesses. Many struggle to start their business because they do not believe they have the capability to do it, and if they do start one, lack of confidence makes it harder to access the initial capital, making women more likely to discontinue their businesses. This is what we are striving to change with our self-esteem classes.
Our self-esteem classes are led by local volunteer Maria Huallpa. We will have three sessions on the following themes: the role of women, leaving our comfort zone and learning to love ourselves. Last Sunday, we had our first session, which explored the different roles women can have – a mother, an entrepreneur, a professional, an artist, a sportsperson. We reflected on how women are not confined to just one role and that we can excel at many different things. We also spoke about the importance of setting goals for ourselves in the different areas of our lives, and how achieving these goals helps us to feel better about ourselves and improve our self-esteem.
Maria Huallpa explains “It is so important that the women know they are capable of playing different roles, that these roles have the same value as what they do in their role as mothers. This will enable them to feel stronger, more sure of themselves, and their self esteem will improve as they feel more fulfilled. They will also understand that they can be a source of change and inspiration for new things”
It was particularly lovely to see many of the women sharing, in the supportive environment created by Maria Huallpa, not only their ideas, but also their personal experiences they have had in these different roles.
In our next class we will reflect on what is meant by ‘comfort zone’, what happens when we stay inside it and the benefits of leaving our comfort zone.
Interested in helping out in the women’s program? We are looking for a Women’s Program Assistant starting in June.
lightandleadership.wordpress.com 