On March 8, International Women’s Day, Embrace Equity through Female Entrepreneurship

You and your family run from ISIS and hide on a mountaintop. From there, you cross countries and end up living in an unfinished building far from home for six years, waiting for the conflict to subside. By the time you return home, your house has been ransacked and is lying in ruins. You move again, this time to a relative’s house, which is abandoned because it is inhabitable. You take a deep breath and resolve to remake your home with sheer will and resilience. After giving birth to four children, you’re no stranger to labor.

Women’s Work

Women’s roles are changing. This International Women’s Day, we celebrate women’s achievements everywhere, especially women rebuilding their lives in the wake of war and violence. Because we belong to each other, we embrace equity to create a world where everyone rises.

We know that as families earn more money, violences spreads less easily. Investing in female-owned businesses pays off in families eating better, kids staying in school longer, and communities rising out of poverty more quickly. That’s why we’re building workplaces where women can thrive with our jobs creation program.

People often have the skills they need to succeed; they just need a little help getting there. In our jobs creation programming, our community of peacemakers gives vetted candidates a small grant to start businesses, provides one-to-one mentoring and coaching during the first year of operation, and connects business owners to customers worldwide in our virtual shop.

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Making Impact

Khansi, a housewife and mother of four, used to work as a seamstress inside her home before ISIS invaded her community. She and her family fled first to the top of Mount Sinjar and later traveled through Syria back to Kurdistan, where the family lived in an unfinished building. She bought a used sewing machine and rebuilt her livelihood. When the family decided to return to their home, they found it had been ransacked and destroyed. They moved into an uninhabitable house vacated by a relative and once again had to rebuild their lives. 

You heard about Khansi and stepped in to help, filling the gap between surviving and thriving. You gave her a small grant to open a tailor shop with a sewing machine, an office chair, a sofa, a small fridge, a wooden table, a fire extinguisher, and different fabrics.

Now her business is thriving. Her children are in school and the family home is being repaired to make their living conditions safer and more comfortable. Because her sewing skills are in such high demand, she expanded her shop, buying a second sewing machine and hiring another seamstress, who also earns a good salary. Khansi is also teaching another girl from her community how to sew for free, furthering the social and economic impacts from one business being opened.

Khansi cannot believe how much her life has changed in the last year. “To become a project owner in a short period and to be able to provide a decent life for your family and another family, this is a great achievement. Thank you, Preemptive Love.”

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In celebration of International Women’s Day, support women’s creativity, entrepreneurship, and resilience. Consider visiting our shop, where artisan goods made by women are available. You can also help refugee women gain the tech skills they need to be competitive in the 21st century job market, or you can support a business start-up for refugee women and families.