Humanitarian aid organizations often talk about knowledge sharing as a way to build capacity. For those of us who don’t work in the humanitarian aid space, these terms seem fancy and vague. As donors, we want to know that our contributions supporting projects that reflect our values, are sustainable, and have a long term impact.
Knowledge has value when it’s given to someone who has the ability to use it. If a person can’t cook, and they are given the recipe for Iraqi fasolia, that knowledge is useless. Knowledge sharing enables the right person to retrieve the right information at the right time to drive innovation, growth, or productivity. Sharing knowledge benefits the sharer and the recipient by creating connections, inspiring a feeling of importance, and increasing leadership skills. In this way, sharing knowledge builds capacity by developing and strengthening people’s skills and abilities.
In our jobs empowerment program, you give Iraqi and Venezuelan entrepreneurs a small grant to open their businesses and provide a year’s worth of one-to-one mentoring to help those businesses thrive. Recently, our jobs team attended the Mosul Entrepreneur Cycle, this year held exclusively for female entrepreneurs to shore up their lack of earlier support. The Mosul Entrepreneur Cycle was created to facilitate knowledge sharing among participants at different stages of business development.
Preemptive Love’s jobs team members shared knowledge about their work supporting entrepreneurs and their methodologies. We held in-depth discussions about how we assess a region for business implementation, select suitable entrepreneurs, and provide tailored support based on the entrepreneurs’ specific needs. In our sessions, we shared valuable insights on marketing strategies, business development, and financial management.
During the session, we delved into the program’s impact, focusing on its ability to alleviate domestic violence through increased household income and improved access to education for children. One woman shared that she could hire a private teacher for her daughter, resulting in outstanding academic achievements. Another participant mentioned that her family of 11 relied on the income generated from her sewing business to live.
Many female attendees hadn’t participated in our jobs empowerment program.They expressed gratitude for the knowledge we shared because they could take that knowledge and apply it to their own businesses, improving their ability to earn independent incomes. They said they felt inspired by our knowledge-sharing and were eager to apply what they had learned to their businesses.
Participating in the Mosul Entrepreneur Cycle enabled our jobs team to scale their impact. People say, “Knowledge is power,” but sharing knowledge is the real power when it is given to people who can use it. When women are empowered to use knowledge, an entire family thrives. Children eat better, they stay in school longer, and when they grow up, they get better jobs, enabling a family to rise out of poverty. Changing the fate of several families changes a community, and eventually a nation emerges, stronger and more resilient. Impactful, sustainable change takes time, but luckily sharing knowledge doesn’t have a shelf life. Thanks to your commitment, we’ll be supporting this generation of entrepreneurs, and the next, and the next until we live in a world where everyone rises.
